Tabula Rasa
by Dragon up a tree
Summary: My first fic! Hisoka's life is frustrating enough, but when a woman claiming to be his real mother suddenly turns up, it's pure chaos. Slightly AU, eventual TsuSoka. under general for variety
1. Family Tree

This is my first time…be gentle ;P

The story is just my attempt to make Hisoka happy. I love him, I really do, and I can't stand the thought of him being so abused. Plus, there were just so many fun scenarios to be had by putting his 'mother' into his work life. Neina is basically an extension of myself, and yet an amalgam of the rest of the cast. She's fun to write for and I hope you'll have fun reading about her and think she's a good mom to Hisoka.

Tabula Rasa: (n.) A young mind not yet affected by experience (according to John Locke) or a chance to start over without prejudice. I've been hearing this phrase a lot lately and only just looked it up. I think it makes a pretty accurate title for this fic.

**Disclaimer**: Yami no Matsuei is not mine, it is Yoko Matsushita's. But this plot and any original characters are mine, so don't touch'em without my permission, please.

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There was something very wrong. He felt…small. Even smaller than he sometimes did at work, surrounded by his older co-workers. And his body wasn't responding to him, not the way it should. His arms and legs were…for lack of a better word, pudgy. He was trying to open his eyes and find out what the hell was going on, but he couldn't. It was like it wasn't his body at all. Was his stuck in another person's dream again?

He started when something brushed against his face. An involuntary groan escaped his throat and his pudgy arm awkwardly went up against his will to bat the thing away. A disembodied laugh reverberated from somewhere above. The whatever-it-was was back, now swiping all over his face, brushing against his nose and tickling under his chin. He whined, to his slight embarrassment, and reached out to catch the offending object in a firm grip. Another laugh washed over him and he finally felt the emotions that had been flitting through the air clearly.

Amusement, pleasure, and…something else. It was hard to describe, but he liked the feeling. He wanted to know what it was called. His hand involuntarily yanked and a small gasp came from that distant place above.

"Itai! Soka-chan, that hurts." That caused him to take a step back mentally. Only Tsuzuki called him 'Soka-chan', much to his chagrin. But this voice was not Tsuzuki's. Tsuzuki's voice was deep, despite his childish disposition. This voice was gentle had an almost musical quality to it, like a woman's. "I'm sorry I woke you, but that's no reason to try and take my hair hostage," the voice continued, still tender and quiet. Hisoka felt gentle fingers push his prize from his grasp, and then one slipped in to replace it. "There. I am now your willing captive, Soka-chan. You're so strong for someone so small."

Finally his eyes opened. His first sight was of sunlight filtering through the green branches of a tree. Blinking, he rolled his head to the side and was greeted by the mystery person's silhouette. Her back was to the low hanging sun, giving her an almost ethereal golden glow and casting her face in shadow. The end of a long golden braid was in her free hand and the shadows of her face shifted into a mischievous smile. Once again his face was assaulted by the frayed end of the braid and he surprised himself by smiling as he turned his face away. The laugh rang out once again, deeper than he expected from the musical tone. The tickling had ceased and now the hand was moving his wispy bangs away from his face.

"My Hisoka," the figure said. "My baby boy." Staring at the silhouette he wished he knew why the figure was smiling at him. At least it looked like she was smiling; it was hard to tell in the shadows. But the small creases and dancing pin-pricks of light in her eyes gave the impression of a smile.

Either the sun or the mystery woman shifted because suddenly he was blinded by light and had the sudden sensation he was falling through the air with nothing there to catch him.

Hisoka opened his eyes to find he was alone in his bed. He was himself again, thin and lanky instead of small and pudgy. Sitting up, he sighed and rested his head on his upraised knees. It wasn't he first time he had had that dream. Quite the contrary, it visited him at least once a month, sometimes more, for a few years now. It was a welcome reprieve from his usual visions of red moons and grey eyes infected with bloodlust. But never once had he seen the mystery woman's face and left him feeling empty afterwards.

From the way she talked you would think she was his mother. But he knew that couldn't be. Though not part of that limited section of his mind called "Happy Memories", he could recall his mother's face quite well. Stern was a good word for it. Sometimes cold. On particularly bad days enraged was a good one too. Never happy, not since he'd grown and revealed how 'unique' he truly was. And always framed in dark tresses like ebony vines, choking her as much as her frigidity.

Looking at his alarm clock, he decided there was no point in trying to get anymore sleep and got ready for work. Since he was a little early he teleported to just outside the Bureau and stared at the cherry trees forever in bloom. When he first came he hated the trees because they reminded him of that night. Now he decided they were just trees and had even begrudgingly accepted they were beautiful.

His vision suddenly flashed from the bright pink blossom orchard to a darkened forest, focusing on one tree in particular. And just as suddenly as the vision came it receded and he was where he had started. He rubbed his eyes and stood in confusion for a good five minutes. What the hell was that?

"Hisoka!" That was all the warning he had before he was tackled in a bear hug by his partner. They would have ended up on the ground if Tsuzuki hadn't pulled back and righted them both without letting go of his grip on the younger boy's shoulders.

"Damn it, Tsuzuki, get off! Are you trying to kill me!"

"But Hisoka, we're already—"

"If you want to keep your candy stash that you hide in the second drawer of our filing cabinet, you will not finish that sentence."

An inu-fied (I made a new word, go me :D) Tsuzuki recoiled as if bitten and stared at Hisoka with tears in his eyes. "How did you know about that, Hisoka? I never told anyone."

"How could I not, you leave the wrappers all over the floor for me to pick up."

"I'm sorry…" Hisoka sighed and shook his head. Honestly, that idiot really knew how to turn up the pity factor, especially when his puppy ears drooped like that.

"Never mind, it's okay. Let's just get inside before Tatsumi notices we aren't in our office yet.

"Okay, Soka-chan!"

"Don't call me that…" Hisoka muttered. When he blinked he saw that silhouetted outlined against the sun. He shook his head minutely, trying to send the image away. With Tsuzuki chattering away next to him, it was no wonder he only barely heard a whispery voice in his ear.

'_Hisoka…I'm waiting. Please come and find me soon. Please…'_

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Tatsumi visited their office a little after lunch to inform them of a new mission. In the briefing room, Hisoka did his best to focus on what Tatsumi and the Chief were saying rather than silhouettes and whispery voices.

"It's a simple mission. Mr. Tsuruga hasn't shown up to be judged. And for once we know exactly where he is." Tatsumi handed Tsuzuki a piece of paper with an address written on it. "Evidently he's just a little disoriented, so he's been walking around his neighborhood since his death from heart failure yesterday morning. But as a ghost, he's causing a few problems, especially with electrical equipment. So, just go pick him up and bring him pack, simple as that."

From experience, both Hisoka and Tsuzuki knew that things were never 'simple as that'. In light of Tatsumi's apparent good humor about the whole thing, however, they decided to just do as they were instructed and left immediately for the neighborhood in the west side of Kyushu.

"Okay, I look through the west side, you look through the east," Hisoka said, pointing in each direction to clarify.

"Right. First one to see Mr. Tsuruga contacts the other. And then we can get ice-cream!"

"And then we send him back to the bureau," Hisoka corrected, leaving no room for argument.

"Fine, then we take him back to the bureau. And then we get ice-cream!"

Hisoka rolled his eyes and walked away, determined not to dignify the sheer childish glee with a response. When his back was turned to the older shinigami, he allowed a small smile to grace his lips before squashing it viciously and focusing on his mission.

For once, everything was 'as simple as that'. They found Mr. Tsuruga, a seventy something retired investment banker, wandering near his daughter's house. He seemed to know he was dead and was just saying good-bye to her. He went quietly with no apparent regrets.

It was as they were flying away that it hit him. A sudden burst of pain in his chest and his head that caused him to drop a few feet. It felt like someone had shot and arrow through both with deadly accuracy. "Hisoka!" Tsuzuki was by his side in an instant, his hand on Hisoka's back as if to steady him in thin air. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I—" A hammer drove both arrows deeper and he gasped as the pain surged back through him. He almost dropped again but Tsuzuki caught him and held him close to his chest.

_Hisoka…Hisoka…Hisoka…I'm here…I'm here, Hisoka…find me…_

That voice again. His vision was clouded over with pain and what felt like something breaking through his carefully erected barriers. 'Where? Where? Are you?' He half thought half uttered. Tsuzuki in the meantime was growing more and more worried about his younger partner and was about to teleport them back to Meifu right away.

_Here…_A vision of an old forest flashed through his mind, a place he had never seen before in his life. It expanded backward and flew across scenery until he saw what was already before him. And just like that the pain evaporated. His barriers were back in place as if nothing had ever happened.

"Hisoka…are you alright?" The younger shinigami took a few deep breaths and nodded.

"Tsuzuki, I have to go. Please don't ask, I'm sorry!" With that he disengaged himself from his partner and flew as fast as he could towards where his strange vision originated. He heard Tsuzuki call out for him but continued flying as fast as he could. He could sense he was being followed, but didn't stop to yell at his pursuer. The voice had stopped, the pain had stopped, but he was determined to make sure that they didn't come back and find out what kind of twisted game someone was trying to play with his mind.

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Tsuzuki didn't understand what had just happened. One moment Hisoka was fine and the next he was about to plummet to the earth. As high as they were even a shinigami would've been seriously injured, possibly killed. So he had caught him and held him as close as he could without hurting the boy. Admittedly, he cherished the feeling of holding him close, feeling that slender frame pressed against him. But hadn't had time to focus on it when Hisoka began mumbling to himself.

When he wrenched himself away and flew off, his worry doubled. Had it been something he'd said? Done? What set the boy off? He flew off after him with barely a second thought, determined to make it up to him, whatever he had done.

They flew for what felt like hours before Hisoka landed on the verge of a forest as the sun began to set, looking hesitant for a brief moment. As Tsuzuki landed, he took off under the canopy of trees. "Hisoka, wait! What's wrong!"

Hisoka didn't listen. He'd seen this forest before, in that vision this morning at the bureau's entrance. But it had focused on a specific tree, large and old with many forking branches. It seemed stupid to try and find one specific tree in a forest, but he knew if he did he'd find out what was tormenting him this entire day.

All the trees were blending together, until he happened to trip over one exposed root. Pushing himself up, he raised his head and his harsh breathing stopped. In front of him was the tree. The exact tree he had seen this morning, real and solid. Standing, he walked over, looking at it critically like an art dealer in a gallery.

"What's so special about this stupid tree? Why am I supposed to be here?" He waited…and waited…and waited. Nothing happened. Growling in frustration, he kicked the tree. "What the hell do you want from me!" he yelled.

The tree suddenly lit up, bright as the moon. Gasping, he stumbled back and fell once again, this time on his rear. The tree's bark turned from a dull earthy brown to silver, the leaves glistening like thousands of radiant emeralds. The light was so intense that he threw up his arm to shield his eyes. He watched, transfixed and awed, as a hand gracefully stemmed from the tree. Then another hand. Both hands planted themselves against the trees trunk and pushed.

From the inner recesses of the tree came a woman. Her long hair was the color of snow: the purest white imaginable. It made the paleness of her skin even more striking. Delicate feet extended from the trunk to touch like a puff of air on the ground. Her arms dropped to her side and there they remained, limp and tired. Slowly her eyes opened to reveal golden irises, pupils slit like a predator's. Her head slowly turned down and she stared at him with those otherworldly eyes.

Now, if she had not made such a dramatic entrance, the first thing Hisoka would've notice was that she had no clothes. He only belatedly noticed this as she fell forward and landed with her head on his right shoulder. Immediately he tensed, not only from having an unclad woman pass out into his arms, but for the onslaught of emotions…which he did not feel. Opening his eyes, he saw just as the light was fading that her hair had turn a honey-gold color in a matter of seconds. Her breath was gently stirring an arrant strand that was just in front of her face. It looked as if she were sleeping.

'She's breathing, so she must be alive…why can't I sense anything from her?'

There were loud crashing sounds somewhere behind him and he turned his head to see Tsuzuki making his way haphazardly through the undergrowth towards him. "Hisoka! What's going on! First you fly off with out a real explanation, then run into a forest, and what was with that bright light! I thought that you'd finally…" Tsuzuki never finished that rant. It was then that he noticed the nude young woman in his partner's arms and Hisoka winced visibly. This was not good. Not only had Tsuzuki walked up on Hisoka holding a woman in a precarious position, which made him feel strangely guilty, but the amethyst eyed shinigami was completely silent and still. This was a rare and wondrous sight to behold, which could only herald the coming apocalypse. Then….

"WHO IN THE HELL IS THAT!" he screamed, pointing an accusing finger at the unconscious girl. The birds nesting in the trees above flew away in all directions at that yell. Hisoka huffed, a little annoyed, and looked at the girls face.

"I wish I knew…"

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In the infirmary Watari was busy checking monitors and readings and fussing over the state of his newly acquired resident. She hadn't awoken since Hisoka and Tsuzuki brought her in, wrapped in Tsuzuki's black trench coat, with the crazy story of her having come out of a tree.

"Let me get this straight," Tatsumi said when they finished. "I sent you out retrieve one lost soul, and you come back with an unconscious woman who fell out of a sycamore?"

"I think it was an oak, actually," Tsuzuki supplied without thinking.

"I don't care if it was a thousand-year-old redwood! Why in the world were you even over there, it's no where near Kyushu?"

"It was my fault." Everyone in the room, save for the unconscious woman in the bed, turned to look at Hisoka, who up till then had been silent. "I was…drawn there. I think she was calling me, for help." 'And she knew my name,' he silently added.

Tatsumi adjusted his glasses and sighed. "I'm not saying it was anyone's fault. I'm just a little worried that we have a complete stranger in the Bureau, that's all. I mean, she came out of a tree! Who's to say she's not some sort of demon."

A few moments passed in silence in which the men stared at the woman laid out on the white starched sheets. Her long golden hair was fanned out around her like pools of silk chord. Skin pale but with a healthy glow to it stretched across a round Alsatian features. She looked like a portrait of sleeping beauty before the prince came to kiss her.

Finally Hisoka rose up and stretched. "I'm going to get something to drink. Anyone else want something."

"Coffee for me please, Bon," Watari piped. Tatsumi waved his hand to decline and Tsuzuki shook his head. When he left there was silence for all of five seconds before Watari said, "Doesn't she look familiar?" Tatsumi and Tsuzuki tilted their heads in question. "I mean, doesn't feel like you've seen her face somewhere before?"

Tsuzuki crossed his arms and sniffed. "No, and who cares? She probably is some tree-dwelling she demon anyway."

Tatsumi raised his eyebrows at his former partner. "That's an unusually harsh comment towards a total stranger from you, Tsuzuki-san."

"What? You said so yourself we don't who or _what_ she is."

Watari sniggered and covered his smile with his hand. "I think I get it. You're jealous this lady got naked and cozy with Bon before you could."

Tsuzuki's face turned almost as red as Hisoka's would have if he'd heard that. "Wha-I-n-no, it's not like that!"

"Suuuure it isn't," Watari smirked.

"Sh-shut up!"

"Why? I'm only agreeing with you." The tone of his voice belied that remark.

Before anyone could say another word there was a very audible groan from the bed. They all turned to the blond woman to see her eyes just beginning to open. They were a stunning glass-green color, almost like the bottles that soda used to come in. She blinked wearily several times before sitting up. She clutched the sheet close to her, wrapping it around her thin form like armor. She looked at each of them, confusion and wariness growing with each new pair of eyes she met.

"Where…where am I?" she croaked. Her voice was sand paper over dry wood and she coughed dryly when it was all out. Watari immediately poured her a glass of water which she drank like it was ambrosia.

"You're in our bureau's infirmary. Two of our men found you and brought you in. My name is Tatsumi Seichirou, this is Watari Yutaka, and Tsuzuki Asato." She nodded to each of them in turn, the glass never leaving her mouth until every drop was gone. When the glass was put down Watari immediately filled it again with a smile. The woman looked surprised but smiled warmly in return. "There is also one other who will join us again soon, Kuro—"

As if on cue, Hisoka returned from the break room with a mug of tea for himself and a mug of coffee for Watari. He stopped just inside the doorway when he realized that all eyes were on him, including one unfamiliar pair.

The woman's breath stopped. Her back was rigid and her eyes were wide in disbelief. She swung her feet off the bed and stood, or tried to, as the mechanics of standing were temporarily eluding her from not having been applied in a long time. Straightening, she walked as carefully as she could over to the young boy, much to the confusion of everyone else in the room. The sheet was still tightly wrapped around her like a toga, but she reached out one delicate hand towards him. Hisoka flinched away but her hand insistently moved some of his wheat-gold bangs away from emerald orbs.

He felt nothing. Not emotions or thoughts were leaking from her to him, though it was obvious she was experiencing something right now. She blinked tilting her head to the side in a familiar fashion before she began to cry with a smile on her face. "Hisoka…"she breathed. Moving her hand to grasp his shoulder she flung him forward into a heartfelt embrace. The suddenness of this caused Hisoka to drop both mugs to the ground in surprise and several utterances of "Huh!" "What the!" and the like from the men.

Tsuzuki was the first to react, propelling himself forward and separating the two blonds forcefully. He was breathing hard and looked as frazzled as he did when The Count was making advances on him. Possibly even more than that with the way his voice had raised several octaves.

"Okay, you! What do you think gives you the right to hug Hisoka like that, huh!" 'Only I get to do that!' Hisoka of course heard that through his empathy, what with Tsuzuki's shields being down from surprise, and turned a shade redder than he already was.

The woman stood in shock for a moment, large watery green eyes even wider and mouth agape, before regaining her composure and narrowing her eyes at the amethyst eyed man. "What gives you the right to think I can't?" she countered. Her Japanese was flawless and her tone was full of authority like Tatsumi's was around budget time.

"Because…! Because…well…" he faltered. She arched one of delicate eyebrows expectantly before sighing and pushing past him.

"For your information," she began as she took her place by Hisoka and hugged him to her again. "I'm his mother."

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**Yay, I finished chapter 1 (applause please) ! So, whatcha think? It'll make more sense later, I promise. **


	2. Complications

Chapter 2! OMG, i actually finished it! The fight scene was hard, even though it's kind of short. Neina's a brisque tactician. (By the way, bonus points if you know where i got her name from) Enjoy.

Disclamer: YnM not mine. Neina is mine. So are any other characters you don't recognize.

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Sakuya Coureneina (a.k.a Neina) Kurosaki. That's what she said her name is. And that she is Hisoka's birth mother. After saying this quite bluntly, there was a resounding "Wha?" from everyone else in the infirmary, including Hisoka.

And that is why Neina found herself sitting on an examination table, finally dressed even if it was only in a white hospital gown, rubbing a sore spot on her arm. She glared at the hypodermic needle container that was feeding her blood into one of Watari's personally upgraded computers.

"We're doing a maternity test…" Watari muttered humorously to Tatsumi. "I feel like I'm on that American talk show, what's it called? Jerry something…"

Neina continued to rub her arm. "Was that really necessary?" she asked.

"I'd have to say, yeah, it was. You just claimed you're my mother!" Hisoka yelled.

"Agreed," Tsuzuki said.

"But I am your mother, Soka-chan!" In a flash she was off the table and had her arms were around him. "I missed you so much! You've gotten so big! And your hair's so soft." She knew this last fact from rubbing her cheek against it. Though a relatively slender woman, she was about two inches taller than Hisoka.

"G-get off!" He managed to push her away, turning the color of a cherry tomato. Though he still couldn't feel even residual emotions from her, having a grown woman cuddle you in front of your co-workers is embarrassing enough.

"That's it!" All eyes turned to Watari who had a huge smile on his face. "That's why she looks familiar. She and Hisoka are almost identical."

"What!" he yelled. "You take that back! I do not look like a girl!" But it was true. Both had delicate features, _huge_ eyes, and long lean builds to their bodies. However, Neina's hair was a fairer blond, like corn silk, and her eyes were a lighter green.

"Really?" was Neina's response. She tilted her head and took a good look at Hisoka. "I think he looks more like his father, aside from the hair. That you got from me!" she finished proudly, twirling a lock between her fingers.

"You be quiet! I've never even seen you before!"

"Well yeah. You were just a baby when…" For a moment she was very quiet, a distant look on her face. It was as if her mind shut down for a moment. Just as suddenly she snapped back and smiled weakly. "You were just a baby when I had to seal myself in that tree. Didn't Runa explain everything to you?"

"Who the hell's Runa?"

"Runa. Your godmother? The one who should've been taking care of you until…" She paused again, but this time with her eyebrows knitted in confusion. "Hisoka, how old are you?"

A little put off by the change of topic, she was instead answered by Tsuzuki. "He just turned twenty." He was a little miffed at being practically ignored by the blonde woman.

"Twenty! Are you serious! Is he serious?" She looked between Tsuzuki and Hisoka in disbelief.

"He's right. I just turned twenty on October 10."

"Yeah, that's your birthday alright. Man, I stopped guessing at sixteen. No offense, hon." Before Hisoka could begin a rant at being called 'hon', Tatsumi cut in.

"Yes, about that…you see, Kurosaki-san—"

"Let's see, I was twenty-one when you were born, so that means I would be…ahhh! I'm thrity-eight!"

"Forty one," Tatsumi corrected.

"What are you, a calculator?" she glared at the accountant. "Let a lady keep some of her dignity and youth." Neina turned her attention back to the smaller blond. "Twenty…what the hell took you so long!" They all started at the sudden glare on her face. "You should've awoken me when you were thirteen! That's seven years. Didn't Runa explain this to you?"

"I don't know a Runa! And you are not my mother! My parents are Rui and Nagare Kurosaki!" An unintentional shudder went through him as all the horrible memories flooded him at the mere mention of their names, but this insanity had gone on long enough. Neina recoiled at that and blinked.

"Naga…re? No…no! Hisoka, he's not your father! Your father was—" There was a sudden blast as if from a fog horn and everyone jumped in surprise. They turned to see Watari smiling sheepishly as the printer next him typed out a page.

With a mutter that roughly translated to "Just when it was getting good," he snatched the paper up and scanned through it. Hisoka felt a surge of relief that this whole stupid charade would be over. They could lock this woman up in an insane asylum and be done with it. "Uh, bon?" Watari said uncertainly. 'Uh oh, that's not good,' Hisoka thought. "She's telling the truth. According to these blood tests, she is your mother."

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"He doesn't take surprises very well, does he?" Neina asked. She watched with a large sweat drop resting on her head as her son banged his head against the wall. They had done the test again with the same results coming back. A third time and the computer actually printed 'SHE'S YOUR MOTHER, GET OVER IT,' across the top of the page. That's Watari's computer for you. "I think I'll wait for him to absorb all this before I tell him anymore."

"I think that would be for he best, Kurosaki-san," Tatsumi agreed.

"Please, call me Neina. You already call Hisoka 'Kurosaki-kun' so lets just try to avoid Kurosaki confusion. That goes for all of you. Except for you, Hisoka. You have to call me Mom!" she laughed.

"The hell I will, you psycho! As far as I'm concerned, you're just someone who escaped from some weird magical tree and claimed I was your son. Which is exactly what you are! You're probably some kind of demon, because I can't even feel anything from you! Explain that!"

Neina arched one of her eyebrows, which made her look even more like a female Hisoka, and crossed her arms. "I would if I knew what you were ranting about, Soka-chan."

"Bon's an empathy. He can feel people's emotions," Watari clarified.

Neina's eyes widened and her hands fell to her side. "Is this true Hisoka? Are you empathic?" Hisoka felt a shiver run down his back. The expression on her face was…nothing. It matched what he could feel from her, just blank. Everyone else squirmed uncomfortably, knowing what a sensitive issue this was for their coworker.

'Great, another woman claiming to be my mother is about to reject me because of my power...' he thought morbidly. Squaring his shoulders, he stared at her defiantly. "Yeah, I am." There, he said it. Maybe now she would leave in shame and never come back.

Neina bent her head so her face was curtained by her flaxen banes. "Oh, Hisoka…" she breathed. Then suddenly her head snapped up and he recoiled in fear. The woman had a huge smile on her face and her eyes looked like they were sparkling with stardust. "I'm so proud!" she squealed, wrapping him in a bear hug.

"Huh?" he replied intelligently. This wasn't how he saw this going.

"I'm so proud of you, Soka-chan! Do you know how rare a trait empathy is, even for blooded psychics? It was a one in one-hundred thousandth chance you would inherit it, and you did! Maybe you do take more after me after all."

"What do you mean?" Tsuzuki asked. He was confused as hell, like everyone else, but he was also getting tired of this woman suddenly hugging Hisoka like that. "What's a 'blooded psychic'?"

"It's someone who inherits a great deal of psychic ability from their parents. Hisoka only has his empathy because…" she pointed to herself proudly and grinned, "I'm an empath too!"

"Huh!" they all chorused.

Neina nodded. "I'm a really high level empath, but it was still a slim chance that Hisoka would inherit my ability. I'm also a great—"

"So it's your fault…" Hisoka muttered. Neina stopped and turned back to him. He was staring at her with such hatred that she thought she would feel herself burst into flames at any moment. She gulped, wondering if he was about to burst a blood vessel.

"Hisoka?" She reached out to grasp his shoulder but he swatted it away viciously.

"It's your fault. It's your fault I'm like this! It's your fault!" Neina was suddenly hurtled back by a blast of energy. She hit the wall and slid down in a daze. Hisoka, realizing he had once again lost control of his power, ran out of the room.

"Hisoka!" Tsuzuki called after him. "I'll go try and calm him down. See if she's alright." Tsuzuki ran after him as Watari and Tatsumi helped her off the ground.

"I'm sorry, Neina-san. Kurosaki-kun has some issues with his powers from…"

"Please, don't go any further, Tatsumi-san." Watari and Tatsumi were both surprised at the calm tone of her voice as she straightened herself. "I want Hisoka to tell me himself what made him do that. I caught glimpses when he hit me, but I want him to tell me. He's a powerful empath, I really am proud, but his shields are pretty weak against my power. But he appears to have some powers I didn't see coming." She brought up her arm which was singed and bleeding and raw with welts and gashes.

"I'll get you a bandage!" Watari began to scramble through his supplies but she just smiled.

"Thank you, but I can manage myself, Watari-san." Bringing up her other hand, she breathed on it and they both jerked in surprise to see a bright green flam spring to life around her hand. She pressed it just above the burn and pushed it downward, sparks and crackles popping off as she did so and lighting her face in an unnatural glow. When she was at the end she swept her hand away and it looked as if there had never been a burn in the first place.

"As I was saying before, I am a great empath…and an even greater sorceress."

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Tsuzuki ran all over Meifu looking for his partner. He checked the break room, their office and Watari's lab since no one would go in their and risk being turned into something. When he realized he wasn't in the library either, he really began to worry. Finally running outside the building, he saw a familiar form hunched under the cherry blossoms. Approaching carefully, he plopped himself down next to the teenage form.

"Hey. Feeling better?" he asked quietly. Hisoka turned his head to the side to hide his face from him.

"It's her fault," he muttered. "She gave me this. Everything's her fault."

"So I take that means you've accepted she's your mother?" Tsuzuki asked.

"No!" his head snapped up in annoyance and he glared at the older man.

"Then how can you blame her if you don't even believe she _could_ give you your empathy?"

Hisoka glared and turned his face away again. He hated it when Tsuzuki made sense. Tsuzuki could only make sense when the rest of the world didn't, and this was one of those times. "I still don't like her."

"That's okay. To tell the truth, I don't either. Something about her is rubbing me the wrong way. Don't give me that look. I'm capable of not liking someone. Take Terazuma for example. And you didn't like me at first, right?"

"I hated you when we first met, if that's what you mean. You were, make that are, childish, weird, you have the mentality of a five-year-old—"

"This is about you and her, not me! You didn't like me, let's leave it at that. But over time, you and I got closer as coworkers and eventually friends, right? Right?"

"Yeah, I guess…" he muttered. It was true; they were a lot closer now compared to then.

Tsuzuki smiled despite himself at hearing his partner finally admit that out loud. "Well, maybe you learn to like her too. If not as a mother, than at least a friend."

Hisoka glared at his hands. "Let's say she is my…mother. Does she honestly think I'd welcome her with open arms, after she's been gone for so long? Does she think she can pick up from here like nothing happened?"

Tsuzuki sighed and reclined against the tree trunk. "But she does seem to genuinely care about you, Hisoka. I can't dislike her for that. You have to realize, she probably doesn't know what's happened to you. She's been inside a tree for the last couple of decades, so to her you're still her little baby. Ow, don't hit me! Meanie! I'm just saying, give her the benefit of the doubt and try not to blast her to pieces, kay?"

Damn. Tsuzuki was still making sense. Hisoka sighed and banged the back of his head against the tree. "Do you think anyone would mind if I went home and rested for a while?"

"Nah, I think you could use the rest. You've had a long and kind of crazy couple of days."

"Kind of?" he raised one of his eyebrows, and Tsuzuki vaguely wondered if that look was genetic.

"Fine, it's been insane. Let's go finish up those papers and I'll walk you home."

"I don't need to be walked home! Stop treating me like a kid already!" They both stood and casually walked away just before the tree they were sitting under was pushed over with a rumbling crash.

Looking back, they both blanched and Tsuzuki muttered "Oh hell."

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"Thank you again, Wakaba-chan, Watari-san. I never would've figured out what would be acceptable to wear in this decade without you," Neina called from inside the dressing room.

"It's no problem, Neina-san. I'm glad to help. Incoming!" Wakaba tossed another pile of shirts and various other paraphernalia over the door. "You know, I'm just kind of curious…Neina is such an unusual name. How…"

"Yes, I was wondering that too! It sounds so exotic. So mysterious." There was a soft laugh from the other side of the door.

"Usually I'm told it's weird. It's short for Coureneina. My full name is Sakuya Coureneina Kurosaki. It's from my mother's si-iiiiide!" There was a loud thump from the other side of the door.

"Neina-san, are you alright?" Wakaba asked worriedly.

"Yeah…I just, uh…fell over trying to get the pants on." Wakaba laughed, trying to hide it behind her hand even though the other woman couldn't see. Watari just laughed hard and slapped his knee between guffaws. "Ahem, yeah. As I was saying, it's from my mother's side of the family. My father was full Japanese, but my mother was half Japanese, half…I don't want to talk about it." The sudden annoyed tone left no room for argument, but succeeded in peaking both the scientist's and the miko's curiosity. "Anyway, she gave me my middle name. She said it means 'water lily's heart' or 'heart filled with rainwater'."

"How pretty!" they both said.

There was a pause. "You think? My grandmother said it was an omen that my life would be filled with grief and sadness." Though both generally people persons when compared with their respective partners, Wakaba and Watari had no idea how to respond to that. Her voice had sounded neutral, but it was such a strange thing to say so calmly. They were thankfully saved when their shopping buddy opened the dressing room door and stepped out. "I like this one the best. What do you think?"

Her buttercup blonde hair was pulled back and braided so that the end tapped her back just above her tailbone. Her pants were a milk-chocolate brown and looked sturdy, like they could take a beating and still be wearable, but were still cute. The shirt was a simple black three quarter tee, but it hugged her like a second skin and accentuated her pleasing figure well. The shoes were simple black boots, American army surplus almost.

"Simple and tomboyish, but it actually looks really good!" Watari exclaimed.

Neina laughed. "Not bad for a forty-one year old with a son, huh? I dress depending on how I feel, and right now I feel like I could use some exercise. I've been stuck in that tree for far too long!" Her face suddenly fell. "I just realized I don't have any money. How am I going to pay for this?"

"Don't worry, it's on us!" Wakaba exclaimed.

"Oh no, I couldn't. I mean, you already said I could stay in the infirmary, asking you to pay for my clothes would be too much."

"Nonsense. You can't go around wearing that hospital gown everywhere, so just consider this a gift. I'm sure Hisoka will be more comfortable around you if you're dressed, as well." Neina blinked a few times but smiled.

"Thank you." She bowed and they bowed in return. "By the way, why does your office have a department store in the basement?" Watari laughed nervously and Wakaba pretended to be fascinated by a floating dusk particle. It had been agreed that Neina was not to know where she was or what they really were until absolutely necessary. For now she was under the impression that they were a kind of psychic private eye agency and Hisoka was currently interning. This was actually Wakaba's idea, stemming from seeing Terazuma walking back towards their office on their way down to the store.

"Um, hey, why don't we go looking for Hisoka? Most likely he'll be in the library trying to calm down." Neina immediately perked up and they almost thought they saw a pair of cat ears perk up from her head as well.

"Library?" They led her away, after paying for her clothes of course, and up stairs to the double doors leading to the library. Watari opened the door for his female companions and Neina's eyes lit up when she saw the shelves upon shelves of books spanning the spacious room in front of her. "I'm…in heaven!" She almost skipped into the room, caressing the spines of the nearest books.

"No, but you're not far off," Watari muttered. "It's official," he said louder, "you're definitely Hisoka's mother."

Neina turned her head, her hand never leaving the shelf. "He likes books?" They both nodded and she smiled brightly. "Well, that's at least one thing we have in common then, hmm?" Before they could respond there was a loud crash and a lot of rumbling through out the building. "What was that?"

"Oh no, please tell me Tsuzuki isn't about to destroy the library again!" The younger Gushoshin yelled, coming out from stacking books on the other side of the shelf.

"Did that chicken just talk?" Neina asked. There was another rumble, this one shaking the entire foundation and they all went down like dominos. "Never mind. It's coming from outside!" They bolted from the library out to the front of the ministry building and stopped at the steps in surprise.

What looked like a dragon made of ripped flesh and protruding bone was ripping up the area all around him, flailing wildly like a puppet whose string were being jerked every which way. One of its eyes was a milky white and the other looked enraged. It was slobbering a kind of acidic substance all over the cherry blossom orchard, reducing them to piles smoking mush.

"Why is there a reanimated corpse of an Egyptian Serpent Tail attacking us!" Neina yelled. Watari wondered how she knew what kind of dragon that was, as fetid as it looked right now, but shrugged with a bashful look on his face. Why would a dragon be attacking a detective agency?

"Uh, is that Hisoka and Tsuzuki?" he said for a quick diversion. Neina's head whipped around to see that indeed her son and his partner were currently trying to hold the dragon off. Tsuzuki couldn't find someplace to remain still enough to summon anything and Hisoka was equally occupied trying to avoid the strikes from head, forearms and tail. He was trying hard to cast a spell but the moment he stopped a scaly paw wrapped around his middle and lifted him off the ground.

"Hisoka!" Tsuzuki yelled. The dragon's venomous mouth was mere feet away from consuming him when something crashed into it from above. Hisoka the death grip eased and he quickly flew out and away. He looked down, expecting to see a phoenix or dragon or white tiger, and gawked when he saw a petite woman with a long braid standing on the dragon's head.

"Try that again, acid breath, I dare you!" Neina yelled into the demon dragon's good eye. The corpse growled and reared up. She jumped off with a flare of spins before landing perfectly and smirking. 'Man, I haven't done this in a while,' she thought. 'Here's hoping I'm not too out of practice.' She dashed forward, dodging to the left when his tail tried to crush her. Vaulting over the scaly appendage, she planted her hands on the ground in back of him and concentrated hard.

Vines of every imaginable species rose up from the earth and lashed the dragon down like ropes. He struggled, snapping as many as he could before the sheer number forced him into submission. Twisting her hand into a new signal, she held her breath as the rumbling started under ground. Releasing it, huge rock spikes rose up and pierced the dragon along its spine like spear heads. One last wet breath and it stilled.

By now everyone in the ministry had gathered on the front of the building and was gaping at the corpse on their front lawn. Hisoka and the others walked the span of it, wondering at the huge rock spikes. "How did you…?"

"If you hadn't run out earlier, you would've heard me explain that I'm also a sorceress," she smiled. Hisoka winced, wondering how she could smile after he hit her. Even Tsuzuki had been a little peeved when he'd first done that. "I practice western style magic, inherited from your grandmother. I learned all about different kinds of magic and paranormal creatures from my master when I was younger. And from that I can tell you somebody went through a lot of trouble to set this up. Corpses of Egyptian Serpent Tales are hard to come by and to reanimate one so well is not easy. Does anyone want to tell me something?" she asked, eyeing everyone who had gathered round. There was no answer and most appeared to try and find a nearby pebble or the cool skin of the dragon very interesting.

"Fine, I'll find out eventually. I have my ways, hee hee…" She let that last thought linger in the air as she climbed over the carcass and once again stood on its snout. Narrowing her eyes, she reached back and suddenly pierced milky white eye with her hand. Several people stepped back in disgust and a few of the secretaries fainted. Watari, though looking a little grossed out, watched in utter fascination as Neina retracted her hand. In it rested a blue orb about the size of a cantaloupe.

"What is that?" he asked.

"It's what brought this guy back to life, if only for a short while. You infuse an orb like this with stolen life essence and implant it in a corpse to reanimate it. Boom, instant zombie! Relatively easy to dispatch though, since it's not securely tied in." She shifted the orb to her other hand and shook her now free hand to get some of the blue slime off of it. Then she brought it to her nose and sniffed delicately. Her tongue flicked out across the side of her hand and everyone recoiled at that, even Watari and Tatsumi. "Hmph…no one I recognize, so probably not after me…" she muttered. "Any of you piss off a necromancer lately?"

She jumped down as everyone began muttering to themselves, trying to think of anyone who had it in their power to do something like this and wanted to attack Meifu for any reason. When she landed, the orb suddenly slipped from her slick fingers and crashed to the ground. There it broke almost clean in two. "Damn! Ah well, it's not much use now any way. All the power went from it when I broke the connection."

"What's that inside?" Tsuzuki asked. Neina bent and picked up the folded not that had rested inside a hollow space in the orb with a frown. Flipping it open, the frown increased.

"'To my jewel, my doll, and all their friends. Just to remind you I'm still here. Love, always, K.M.'. Who's K.M.?"

Hisoka stopped breathing and lunged at the note. "Give me that!" He wanted to read it himself. He had known one day that evil presence would come back into their lives, but could that really be today? On top of everything else? The moment his fingers touched the paper, however, his body ignited. The curse marks were thrown back into fiery life and he doubled over with a strangled shout.

"Hisoka!" Neina yelled. She caught him and helped him to hit the ground a little softer. "Hisoka, what's wrong! Hisoka? Hisoka!"


	3. Memories and Suspicions

Chapter three! This one took a little longer. I kept flip-flopping on how things should progress. Then again, chapter two only came out so fast because I was working on it during that three day waiting period before uploading chapter 1. Anywhoot, have fun!

Disclaimer: Descendants of Darkness is not mine, but this fic is.

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Neina was running after Tsuzuki who was carrying Hisoka towards the infirmary. The others were close behind, Tatsumi shouting orders for the clean up crew and Watari rattling off a list of what he would need for the boy. "What's going on? What's wrong with him? Hisoka!"

When they made it to the infirmary doors Watari put a restraining hand on her shoulder. "Neina-san, please wait out here for a little while." He gently pushed her down into one of the waiting room chairs as Tsuzuki disappeared through the door with her son. She wanted to follow, but Watari shook his head when she made the move to get up. Looking both annoyed and afraid she resumed sitting.

A few moments later Tsuzuki walked back out into the waiting room. "Tsuzuki-san, is he alright?" she asked immediately, rising to her feet.

'So she knows my name after all,' he thought idly. Her eyes suddenly narrowed at him.

"You do realize my shields are down from worry and as an empath I'm also pretty good at reading minds, don't you?" Tsuzuki jerked, not only at the implications of that statement, but of how much she both looked and sounded like Hisoka just then.

Trying hard to relax a little and keep his shields up to their max, he managed to reply, "Watari is treating him right now. This attack was a little more serious than some of his others, but he thinks he'll be able to recover." Neina appeared to relax a little more but still looked lost and anxious.

"What happened? He touched that paper and suddenly…" she slumped back into her chair, looking a more haggard than she had earlier that day. She rested her forehead on her fists, pounding them against it every now and then. Tsuzuki felt the pang of sympathy and sat down next to her.

Even though it was breaking the agreement made between everyone else earlier, he decided that if this really was Hisoka's mother, she deserved to know. "Hisoka…was cursed a long time ago by a very evil man."

"I know." Tsuzuki almost fell out of his chair and Neina smiled sadly down at him. "I saw the curse marks glowing when I held him. It doesn't take a magical genius to figure out what they meant. And not to sound egotistical or anything, but I am a magical genius." Tsuzuki righted himself and watched her for a moment. She should be in her forties, but she only looked like she was around twenty. Yet now, she appeared older with her brow creased and eyes half-lidded in worry.

"He'll be okay," he said, plastering on one of his fake smiles. "These attacks come and go, but he always bounces back eventually. You'll see."

She was quiet for a few moments, staring at her lap in thought. "He doesn't like me, does he?" she asked suddenly.

"Um, well…"

"You can say it, I already sort of figured that one out too." A bitter laugh escaped her and her thumbs began to message her temples. "Can't say I really blame him. He's the only one who grew up." She reclined and purposefully knocked the back of her head against the wall. "I want to say it's not my fault, except that sounds so weak. But to me, barely any time has passed. Inside that tree I was only conscious every few years and only for a little bit of time. Even when I regained most of my power, I could only stay 'awake' for a few days, enough time to try and send out my thoughts for him. I thought I'd found him once, but he never came. I felt so alone after that until I slipped back into sleep…To me, he's still my little boy.

"I was so happy…so relieved when I felt a connection with him the other day. For the first time in forever, I wasn't alone." Tsuzuki retreated for a moment into his own memories. Boys throwing rocks by a river, torches, angry voices, and him lying alone and crying. Neina didn't know it, but she'd found another connection with someone else.

"Tsuzuki-san?" He looked back up, trying to keep his smile up as much as his shields. "Hisoka is…dead, isn't he?"

He sat bolt up right, his breath stopped and face paled. "Wh-what? I told you, Watari said—"

"That curse is powerful. I don't know it personally, curses not being my area of real expertise, but it's powerful enough I sense it and those scars are years old. It's fatal, death imminent within a few years. Please, Tsuzuki-san, tell me the truth. Is he…"

Sighing, Tsuzuki dropped a hand to her shoulder. "He…we are all Shinigami, Guardians of Death. This is Meifu, Neina-san. Hisoka died—"

"That's enough!" she barked, her voice cracking. It echoed down the halls and drew the attention of the other shinigami still hanging about. Her pupils were mere pin-pricks in a sea of glass green. Tsuzuki retracted his hand in surprise. "That's enough, Tsuzuki-san. I just wanted my suspicions confirmed. If you tell me anymore, Hisoka would be angry with you, wouldn't he?" She smiled but it looked fragile, like a porcelain mask. "It's his right to tell who he wants to. You've probably already told me too much."

The mask cracked. She drew her knees up to her chest, still perched in her chair. "Oh gods…" she whispered. "I didn't know what to expect when I got out. Would he be straight-laced or rebellious? Would he be a future executive or a goth? There were so many possibilities…a shinigami never really occurred to me. The one that was the most daunting was 'would he forgive me?' I suppose I know the answer to that now."

A small sob escaped her and at that moment he realized that she and Hisoka were not a like. Hisoka would never be so open with a stranger.

"You're not a stranger. You're Hisoka's friend," she muttered between sniffs and sobs so low he barely caught it. Before he could reply, Watari stepped out from the infirmary and shut the door securely behind him. He paused, taking in the scene before him before smiling as sugary as possible.

"Tsuzuki, I just got a call from Tatsumi. He wants to see us all in the chief's office right away. I'm sorry, Neina-san, but I have to ask you to stay here until we get back. Hisoka will be fine, so neither of you need to worry."

Neina stared at him, her face blank and impassive despite the tear trails down her cheeks. After a moment she nodded with a quiet, "Yes, Watari-san." He nodded and led Tsuzuki away down the hall, sparing one last glance backward at he huddled form balanced on the chair.

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Neina stared at the door. On the other side was Hisoka. But Watari told her to wait there. Some small part of her desperately wanted to be accepted by Hisoka's friends as much as she we wanted to be accepted by him, so she did her best to follow the genki doctor's orders. But it was so hard, knowing he was there on the other side, possibly still in pain. Closing her eyes, she tried to keep herself calm and repair her worry frayed shields.

Before she could even try, however, a wave of suffocating pain slammed into her. She gasped and fell forward onto her knees. It felt like fire was dancing across her sides, her arms, her chest, everywhere, painting elaborate patterns in her flesh. Sucking in her breath, she pushed herself up onto her feet and staggered to the door.

Walking across the floor to the bed was a chore when every nerve in her body was screaming, but the sight of her son spurred her on. He was covered his sweat but pale as death, his face contorted in pain, his head thrashing from side to side. This was Watari's idea of 'going to be alright?'

"Hisoka? Hisoka, I'm here, it's okay. Hisoka…" She reached out and grasped his hand, but realized the mistake to soon. The moment she touched him she was plunged into darkness, falling downward until she hit rock-bottom and lay unconscious on a cold stone floor.

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Tatsumi stood at the front of the room next to chief Konohe, straightening some papers and trying his best to keep calm. You would've thought he'd have been used to monster attacks by now.

"I've called this meeting to discuss the events of the last two days. Namely the appearance of Neina Kurosaki and the attack by a dragon sent by Muraki." The tension in the room doubled at the mention of his name but no one else made a sound. "I'm worried that these two events maybe related."

"How? Neina-san wouldn't know Muraki. She's been inside a tree for twenty years."

"That's if she's telling the truth, Wakaba," Watari said, catching on quickly like he always could. "She could be lying."

"Why would she lie? I mean, you said the blood tests were positive, she is Hisoka's mother." Everyone was silent again in contemplation.

"Muraki's research," Watari suddenly spoke up. "It could be possible to create 'mother-like' clone if he had a sample of Hisoka's DNA and another donor. He could give her traits like his and traits from another donor, and we wouldn't have known the difference in a normal blood test."

They all exchanged glances, worry mixed with fear and anger to varying degrees. "But…she cares for him. Doesn't she? I mean, either she really cares for him, or she's a phenomenal actress." Wakaba looked hurt as she said this, like it was a horribly sad idea that Neina was merely a clone, a puppet for Muraki. Terazuma grunted in agreement, his cigarette bobbing once. From the little he'd seen of the flighty woman she did seem to love the kid.

"He might've implanted false memories in her, to make her think she really is his mother. It would be like hypnotism, she would do everything a good mother would do until some sort of trigger, a word or an action, and then she would do a complete 180 and possibly try and take us all down."

"It's rather suspicious," Tatsumi supplied. "She arrives a day before an attack by Muraki, her words and actions drive him out into the open whether intentional or not, she knew the species of dragon that attacked on sight, where it's power source was placed, how to take it out, and cracked it open to reveal Muraki's message. Can that all really be a coincidence?"

The morose silence once again took hold. Everyone was absorbed in their own thoughts, flip-flopping between utter-faith in the blond woman and suspicion of her behavior.

"Tsuzuki, you were talking to her before I came out. What do you think?" Watari asked.

Tsuzuki thought back to how hurt Neina looked. The words she said. The things she did. Was it all an elaborate act to gain their trust? But she had seemed so genuine. She had cried... "I don't know." There was a collective sigh and everyone slumped a little.

'She must've cried,' they all thought.

"All things considering, I think it would be best if we kept her under close watch until we have hard evidence for or against her," the chief said. "Where is Neina-san now?" Everyone looked around, as if expecting her to suddenly appear in a puff of smoke with a pointy black hat on her head and a flying monkey over her shoulder.

"We left her outside the infirmary."

"Alone? Outside the room where Kurosaki is still recovering?" Tatsumi asked. There was a pause before everyone leaped up and bolted out the door.

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Neina groaned and curled defensively into a fetal position. That fall had hurt, stone not being the softest thing to land on. 'Wait, stone? If I collapsed in the infirmary, I should be on linoleum, not stone.' Opening her eyes, she was greeted by darkness. Blinking, she tried to activate her night sight, a low grade spell that gave her the ability to see in the dark. But it appeared her magic was out of order.

Sitting up, her eyes began to naturally adjust and she looked around to see she was in a cellar or basement of some sort. How had that happened? A shuffling sound drew her attention and she turned around to see a small form in a white yukata huddled in the corner. A mop of ash-blond hair fell forward into his eyes and he had his back turned towards the stairs leading up to the door. But the sensation she got from looking at the child could only be tied with one person.

"Hisoka?" She crawled forward on her hands and knees until she was before the tiny form. "Hisoka, is that you?" She reached out a timid hand to his shoulder and gasped when it passed through like water vapor. Before she could assess the situation any further, a vague whisper caught her attention.

"Monster…you're a monster…" It was a woman's voice, a low growl of anger. "You are no son of mine!"

"Mother…" it was a small sob from the tiny child before her. Neina felt her heart constrict in horrible apprehension.

"He is an abomination," it was a man's voice this time, full of authority and coldness. "Why must we be cursed with such a child?"

"Father…please don't be angry anymore…please…" he sobbed.

Neina felt like she wanted to cry as well. How could this have happened? How had he ended up here, with them? Why?

"Hisoka, can you hear me? Their right about one thing, and only one thing: You are not their son, you're mine. I'm your mother, and I could never hate you. And Nagare is not your father, could never be your father. Your father loved you as much as I do. I…I wish he was here to tell you himself, but…" She did sob, once, before gathering as much strength into her voice as she could.

"Their words hurt, didn't they? Even when they weren't said out loud, you were forced to feel them in your very core, like invisible daggers. No wonder you hate your empathy so much. And here I was acting like it was the greatest thing ever," she laughed bitterly at herself. "You want to know a secret, Hisoka. I hated it too, when I was little. It frightened me, when I realized that no one else could do what I could do. But gods, I had my parents there to love and support me. You had this…gods, Hisoka, I'm so sorry! I should've been there!" She tried once more to reach out to him but the floor suddenly gave out again and she was falling.

This time she was ready to break her fall into a crouch. The shock to her knees made her grunt but she pushed herself up and gathered her bearings. She was in a forest now, but it was lighted red. Looking up, she saw the culprit was a blood red moon, something she knew as an ill omen. From a cell to an open forest, Neina realized that she must be in Hisoka's memories. That was why anything she did physically would have no real effect. Her empathy and his had both been down and when their hands connected she had been sucked into his subconscious. While she had said she'd wanted him to tell her himself, this didn't feel right. It seemed like a huge invasion of privacy.

Scuffling sounds drew her attention behind her and…

She screamed. She had screamed only a few times in her life the way she did then, only at her most horrifying moments, the moments that haunted her even now, and this was one of them. Hisoka was…he was…that man was…

"GET AWAY FROM HIM!" She lunged at the figure in white, ready to kill him with her bare hands, and caught the briefest glimpse of that sadistic face framed by platinum hair and red moonlight, and the bleeding curse carved into her son before she was once again falling.

The images were coming rapidly now. A ship, a gun, and a girl with a gaping wound all flashed by at once. More people were coming and going around her, but it was like they were stuck in fast forward, mere flashes of actual beings. And then she stopped.

It was hot. Unbearably hot, with fire licking at her from every side. Focusing through the heat haze, she realized she was in a burning laboratory of some sort. What the hell did this have to do with anything? A roar made her head snap up and she gulped. Few creatures truly scared her, but winding its way across the ceiling was one of them.

"A Flame Serpent!" she breathed. It was frightening and beautiful at the same time.

A beam from above suddenly snapped and came crashing toward her. She dodged out of instinct, but her leg was caught beneath. No pain was felt however and she easily fazed through it. Being a phantom within a memory had evident advantages.

"Tsuzuki!" Her head turned to the right, where she saw Hisoka running through the fire towards a motionless figure resting against a pile of rubble. "Tsuzuki no baka, why aren't you moving? I'll come over there."

"Tsuzuki-san?" she muttered. She moved closer, jumping over the larger piles of debris in leaps that would back a jackrabbit jealous. The roar of the fire made it difficult to hear the mumbled words from as close as she could get, but the man's posture and the tears streaming down his face said enough. Something horrible must've happened to break him like that.

Her eyes widened when Hisoka flung himself at the man, his arms going around his neck. She didn't know if it was just the fact that she was in his mind or if in fact at this moment the world went silent except for his voice, but she heard him loud and clear.

"I'm not going back, not without you. I don't want to be alone anymore. If for nothing else, than exist for me. Live for me!"

Tsuzuki looked as surprised as Neina but quietly asked "Exist…for you?" Hisoka could only nod. Tsuzuki wrapped his arms around the boy's waist and held him close, and then everything turned white.

Instead of falling, this time she felt as if she were being lifted up by invisible hands. Everything still remained white and the journey was slow.

"Hisoka? I know you can hear me; this isn't the first time I've been pulled into a collective subconscious. Where are you?" Her ascent stopped abruptly, and before her floated Hisoka's form, curled up defensively almost like a hedgehog. She smiled sadly and glided forward. Reaching out, she breathed out in relief when her hand connected with him. She pulled him close and ran her hand soothingly through his hair. "I'm sorry Hisoka. I had no idea everything that had happened to you, and I know there must be more I didn't see." She began crying and rocking him, as much to comfort her as him.

"I'm even more proud of you now. You went through all these horrible, frightening moments, and you still stand tall. You're so much stronger than you look…" she laughed, a watery tear filled laugh, when she felt a flash of annoyance at that comment. "I'm sorry. It feels like it's all my fault. The circumstances were out of my control, but I still feel responsible. You're all I have left, Hisoka. I love you, would never want to hurt you. And everything that's happened…"

She was silent for a moment, just crying and holding him in a reality that wasn't exactly real. "It's…okay…" he muttered. Neina smiled, not even noticing when the world around them began to crack and crumble and fall. She felt herself slip back into her own consciousness, away from him, and into a light sleep.

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Neina grunted and groaned as her mind swam up from the dregs of sleep. The first thing she realized was that she was on her back in what felt like a soft bed. That was a nice surprise. Opening her eyes, she saw a pair of purple eyes staring at her bout two inches from her face. That was not a nice surprise.

"Gyaaaahhhh!" Her fist connected expertly with Tsuzuki's face and sent him flying backwards. He lay there, stunned and twitching every now and then, and she stood panting on top of one of the infirmary beds. That had startled her.

"Nice shot!" Watari said. Tatsumi put a hand to his head to nurse the headache he knew he was about to get.

"What the hell was that for!" Tsuzuki yelled, standing back up and holding his bruised and possibly broken cheek.

"You do not loom over someone when they sleep! It's creepy, you perv!"

"I was not looming! And I'm not a perv!"

"And I'm not sleeping beauty, so don't make like your going to kiss me awake, _perv_!"

"That's it, I change my vote, Tatsumi! She's definitely an evil clone!"

"Huh?"

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Sorry to leave it off there, but on to the next chapter! Next time, we find out a little more about Neina's past. Is she a clone or the real thing? Who was Hisoka's father? What happened twenty years ago? All this and more will be answered (I think) in the next chapter!

On a side note, I would like to thank my reviewers thus far, all two of them. AngelofLight and laustic, thank you for supporting this story. I wasn't sure how well it would go over, but I'm glad you like it.


	4. The Road to Avalon

Man, I had to upload chapter three twice! Weird…sorry if that confused anyone.

Anyway, here's chapter 4! R and R, please! Whoot!

Disclaimer: I own the manga, I own the DVDs, but I do not technically own _them._

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"That's it, I change my vote, Tatsumi! She's definitely an evil clone!"

"Huh?" Neina moved as if to sit back down, but her leg suddenly buckled beneath her. It looked as though she was about to fall, and the men all made a move to catch her (except for Terazuma, of course) but she managed to right herself on her own and sat slumped over a little in fatigue.

"Are you alright, Neina-san?" Wakaba asked worriedly.

Neina didn't answer right away, but ended up shrugging. "I'm alright. Just a little tired from my trip."

"Trip? Where'd you go?" Tatsumi asked.

Neina smiled sadly and looked at the sleeping form of Hisoka still in his bed. "I was accidentally pulled into Hisoka's subconscious. I saw his memories." Everyone stopped breathing and Neina nodded. "Yes, I most likely saw the ones you're thinking of. And I have a question for all of you." She lifted her head and many took a step back in fear of the look in her eyes. "Who is the man in white?"

"You don't know?" Tsuzuki asked. Neina's eyes narrowed and for a moment everyone thought they flashed a bright gold color.

"If I did, I would not be sitting here talking to you," she said coolly. She raised her hand and appraised her nails while her fist was in the shape of a claw. "I would be ripping his throat out and feeding him to the wolves." The tone in her voice gave no thought that she was kidding. In fact, they thought she had worst things on her mind than that.

Everyone exchanged glances. They were now thoroughly confused on the topic of Neina's allegiance. "His name is Muraki Kazutaka. I'm sorry, Neina-san, but even if we knew where he was, we wouldn't tell you."

Neina glared at the purpled eyed shinigami. "Why not?"

"Because, Hisoka wants to take care of him. And after him, I'm next on that list. But the point is if you were the one to fight his battle, he probably wouldn't forgive you."

Neina grimaced and turned away. "Sounds like his father…" she muttered. She turned back to him with a perplexed glare on her face. "Did you call me an 'evil clone'?"

Tsuzuki laughed nervously and everyone else looked like they were in varying degrees of annoyance. "Um…No I didn't!"

"Neina-san, you look a bit pale," Tatsumi interjected. "Maybe you should get some more rest."

She relented but eyed them all suspiciously. "I guess I am a little tired. I've already had to use up a lot of power and I wasn't fully recovered to start with."

"Then rest is the best course of action I believe. We have a room prepared in a nearby residence—"

"No." She laid back down and pulled the white sheets up to her chin. "I want to stay here…in case…he needs me." No sooner had her head hit the pillow than she started to fall back asleep, curling up in an almost catlike manner.

The others looked at each other. "Like I said before, either she really cares for him or she's a phenomenal actress," Wakaba whispered. "How do we know the truth?" They all looked to Watari expectantly.

Running a hand through his blond tresses, he sighed. "Any clone Muraki made, especially from an amalgam of genes, will be unstable. Their genetic structure will most likely deteriorate and fall apart in a few days, resulting in a loss of composition of form and—" he looked around at the confused faces of his coworkers and grinned wryly. "In a nutshell, if she is a clone in a few days she just sort of fall apart or melt."

The others grimaced, but nodded and began to file out of the infirmary.

"Tsuzuki, are you coming?" Tatsumi asked.

"Not right now. I kind of want to keep an eye on her…on them," he corrected. Tatsumi and Watari exchanged a knowing glance. The last time Tatsumi had stayed to watch over a patient in the infirmary, Ikaruga-kun, she had ended up being a monster sent by Muraki. It was most likely Tsuzuki was remembering that as well and wanted to stay and defend Hisoka should this happen again.

"Alright. But try to get some sleep eventually." He nodded and the secretary left with the scientist. Tsuzuki settled into a chair next to Hisoka and alternated looking at him and the woman in the next bed. It was very creepy how alike they looked when their faces were calm in slumber. He wondered fleetingly if they had anything else in common.

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Neina stopped in the middle of the hall and turned her head, glaring daggers at the taller man. "Why are you following me, baka?" she asked icily. She had picked up her son's little nick-name for his partner quickly.

Tsuzuki smiled and shrugged. "I'm not following you, we just happen to be heading in the same direction." This was a blatant lie. It had been decided after coming to the suspicion she may be a clone that Neina was never to be alone anywhere in the ministry. This had resulted in two days of her constantly being followed, from the time she woke up from bunking in the infirmary to when she returned in the evening. And it was obviously getting on her nerves.

Arching her eyebrows, Neina returned her gaze forward and continued on. Around the corner she went through one of the doors and Tsuzuki followed without hesitation.

"PERVERT!" came a loud yell and Tsuzuki came flying out the door to crash against the opposing wall. As the door swung close again he realized his mistake. The sign quite clearly read "ladies". Tatsumi, who had arrived around the time of the yell and Tsuzuki's expulsion from the land of feminine hygiene, offered him a hand up.

"How does the investigation go?" he asked good naturedly. It was obvious he found this latest incident slightly amusing.

"Alright. But I don't think I've made a great first impression on her. And she's a hell of a lot stronger than she looks!" Tsuzuki rubbed his chest, wondering if she had cracked a few of his ribs. "She likes to kick!"

"I'll switch off with you after she comes out. It may be more believable if I ask her to help out around the offices instead of hanging around Hisoka all the time."

The amethyst-eyed man nodded. That had begun to bother him again, which was a little hypocritical considering how often he tried to attach himself at the hip to the young man. (why does that sound dirty writing when I'm writing about Tsuzuki? --) "How long did Watari say it would take before she started to 'deteriorate'?"

"Anywhere from a few days to a few weeks. He said no more than a month. And that's only assuming if she is a clone."

"Greeeeat. And we still can't tell Hisoka…" he grumbled. The last few days, while he had not been overly friendly with the woman, he had not objected to having a morning cup of tea with her. Neina always smiled a great deal during these sessions, even when they didn't talk. And sometimes, she did manage to coax a few words from the youth. This made the older men worry that he could actually get attached to the supposed clone.

"Can't tell Hisoka what?" Neina asked as she came out of the bathroom.

"Can't tell him…that bright orange makes him look like a Halloween pumpkin!" Tsuzuki said quickly. She arched her eyebrows, the look obviously saying 'did I hit you harder than I thought?' without actual words.

Tatsumi cleared his throat, bringing the attention to him. "Neina-san, Watari was wondering if you could help him out in his lab. He's working on a few potions that could use some expert magical input."

She nodded, "I'll do what I can. I've felt rather useless the last couple of days just walking around. And I want to pay back Watari-san for buying me extra clothes."

"Very well. I'll show you the way."

"Nah, looks like you have some papers to file. I know my way around pretty well now. Catch you two later, bye!" With that she sped off in the direction of Watari's lab on the other side of the building.

"Should we follow?" Tsuzuki asked.

"No, Watari will contact me if she doesn't show. Besides, I'd still like to have a little faith in her. Hisoka could use a positive female influence around here, aside from Kannuki-san."

Tatsumi walked off and Tsuzuki trekked back to his and Hisoka's office in thought. 'Have faith…hmmmm….' Hisoka looked up when he entered the room. He had gotten released from the infirmary yesterday afternoon and was trying to make a dent in the paper work left behind. Neina had been by his side most of the time in the infirmary, cutting apples for the both of them while Hisoka progressively recovered from his bout with the curse. Tsuzuki reflected that he still looked a little green around the gills, so to speak, but he was doing better than the day before. Masking his worry with a smile, he made a small wave. "Hey!"

"Hey." He looked around half expectantly. "Where'd Neina go?" One of Hisoka's earlier laid down rules, as quoted here was: 'I'm not calling you mom, Dammit!' So he had resorted to calling her by her first name, much to her chagrin.

Tsuzuki tried to ignore and squash the little pain of jealousy that he had immediately noticed her absence and smiled. "She went to help out Watari."

"Huh? But this just came for her," he held up an envelope.

"Geez, she hasn't been here a week and she's getting mail?" he half-joked. He plucked the envelope from his partner's grasp and gawked at the seal.

"Yeah, that was my reaction, too," Hisoka admitted. "Why does Enma want to see her?"

Tsuzuki shook his head in perplexity. Could the King know something they didn't? Hisoka snatched the letter back and headed out the door. While Tsuzuki was no genius, it wasn't required to be one to know where he was going.

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Watari looked up at the knock on his door. "Come on in," he called. He smiled when Neina stepped through the portal, smiling sweetly. Evil clone or not, the scientist liked her. She had a fun sense of humor and actually got most of his jokes and odd quirks with out explanation.

"Tatsumi said you could use my help. Something about potions?" Watari nodded and ushered her over.

"I do, but first maybe you could help me with this, since you seem to know a lot about creatures. Wakaba and Terazuma are having some problems with bodies turning up before their time, and kind of extra crispy."

"Any distinguishing characteristics?" Watari blinked and looked back at her. The smile was gone and she was suddenly all business. Her posture was military style, feet slightly apart and hands clasped behind her back.

"Um, they said there was a smell like sulfur around the bodies. And a few had claw marks in their backs. I have pictures if that would help," he pointed to a desk next to her and she picked up the folder. Flipping through the Polaroid's, she frowned but didn't hint at much disgust or surprise.

"Looks like you have an imp infestation. They must've hopped a ship over from England. Either that, or you have a summoner, and that's a whole new set of problems right there." She tossed the folder back onto the desk. "I'd recommend checking import records first for any suspicious flights or barges from Europe. Anything that could ship something about the height of a grizzly bear, but thinner, like a human. If there's nothing, they need to locate the summoner and take him out. Most likely he's the only thing keeping the imp here."

"And if they find nothing like that?"

This time she looked a little worried. "If there's no obvious summoner, then the imp has managed to evolve into the rank of devil and killed him. If an imp gets powerful enough when summoned, it can kill the one who summoned him and get a higher rank. Only the most experienced summoners can control a devil."

Watari nodded, knowing that was true. He had known it was most likely an imp or a devil, but was curious about how much Neina knew. Obviously it was a lot. "You're pretty good at this."

Neina smirked and walked over to the scientist's computer. "I used to have a job similar to being a shinigami. We had to deal with that type of demon more than once."

"So you had a job like this?" Watari asked surprised. 003 suddenly popped up from nesting in a pile of papers and hooted. Flapping, the little owl flew over and rested on her shoulder, cooing softly. It was obvious the owl liked the young woman. Smiling fondly, Neina petted the owl's head with her index finger.

"Yeah. I was part of an occult bounty hunting agency." His eyes bugged out and Neina laughed. "Is it that hard to believe I was a bounty hunter?"

"Not the way I've seen you throw Tsuzuki around it isn't. But I've never really heard of an occult bounty hunting agency."

She nodded, 003 now trying to make a nest out of her hair the way she did with the scientist. It was hard since Neina had it in her customary braid. "That goes to show how good we are. We had a couple of contracts from Enma every now and again, just stuff you guys didn't need to get involved with or when you were particularly busy. Demons that left their assigned territories or journeyed up from hell without formal consent. Oh, and sometimes magical objects, like cursed dolls and such. And all without letting only the most essential people know."

"But your telling me now," he pointed out.

"I know. And now I have to kill you." Watari stopped breathing and backed up a little in his rolling chair. Neina's eyes shifted in concern. "That was a joke, Watari." He breathed again and smiled bashfully.

"Right, I knew that. So, I assume you didn't bounty hunt any after Hisoka was born."

Neina sat down in an extra chair and placed the bird in her lap. "That's right, but mostly because I had no other choice."

Before she could go into any detail, there was another knock at the door and they turned to see Hisoka and Tsuzuki walk in. "Neina," Hisoka said, "You have a letter." He handed it to her and she glanced at it in mild surprise. "It's…from Enma-daioh." Watari almost fell out of his chair but managed to keep it to a mild shift in posture.

"Oh. Took him long enough, I was wondering when he'd notice I was here." Neina ignored, or didn't see, the stunned faces as she tore open the envelope. She scanned through it before smirking. "Well, looks like I'll have to help you out later, Watari-san. I'm being asked to a meeting." She grabbed a nearby pen and quickly scribbled something on the paper. When she was finished, it folded in on itself and disappeared, most likely straight to the King himself. Rising, she paused and stood in front of her son.

"Hisoka, I don't suppose you could get a day off soon?" she asked hopefully.

"I…I might, why?"

She smiled, but her eyes looked a little saddened. "I want to show you our old home. Where you and your father and I all lived before…before the incident." Everyone's curiosity was set into motion by this last comment. "Really, I just want to go and see what's become of it and get a few things I left behind, but…I want you to understand what happened, and some things are easier to explain when they are seen. Does that make any sense or am I just babbling?" she asked with a self-conscious laugh.

"No, it makes sense," he muttered. He had noticed that around most Neina was very confident, even boisterous like Watari and Tsuzuki. But around him, it was like she censored herself, toned herself down. It was like she was afraid to cross an invisible barrier between them, and Hisoka wondered if he liked it better that way. Maybe agreeing to this was a bad idea. "I'll see what I can do." Neina nodded, a smile on her face.

"Can I come?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Is your name Hisoka?" she growled. Tsuzuki whimpered, his paws going over his head. Satisfied, she bid everyone good-bye and opened the door to reveal a man in a cloak and a hood shaped like the beak of a raven. Everyone else recoiled in shock, but Neina just stared at him. "Your new, aren't you?" she finally asked.

"I've worked here for ten years, miss," the cloaked man replied, obviously puzzled by her reaction or lack there of.

"Honey, I've been locked in a tree for the past twenty-years. To me you're new."

The cloak man was obviously trying his best to remain ominous and foreboding and not laugh. "I'm here to escort a Miss Neina Kurosaki to a meeting with the King. I assume that's you?" he managed to let a smile drip into his voice.

"You assume correctly. Lead the way." He reached out and grasped her shoulder and they were gone.

"Do you think something's wrong?" Watari asked. Enma didn't just randomly request an audience with someone. Enma didn't _request_ an audience with anyone, it was just a matter of if he needed to see you, you went. Who was Neina that she could either accept or decline his offer?

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A few hours later they were assembled in the conference room. Neina had sent word ahead that she needed to speak with Hisoka, Tsuzuki, Tatsumi and Watari as soon as she returned. And just after they sat down, she appeared with the beak-hooded man.

"Thanks, Toma-san," she said brightly.

"My pleasure, Neina-san. Good luck with everything."

"You too!" she winked, nudging him in the chest suggestively. He coughed and whisked away like air. "Ah, young love." She laughed and turned her attention back to her audience. Suddenly her face became rather annoyed looking.

"Welcome back!" Watari said. She smiled thinly and nodded.

"Hisoka, could you give me a moment alone with your friends?" she asked sweetly. Hisoka looked like he was about to object when a clear thought entered his head: _Out. Now, please._ Standing he shuffled out into the hall. He was a little afraid of being caught in the middle of whatever it was she was about to do.

Neina suddenly seemed to tower over the three other men, a large vein throbbing on her forehead. "So…" she started pleasantly enough. "I'm an evil clone, hmmm?" The men blanched. Even Tatsumi looked a little nervous as Neina walked around the side of the table. "Oh yes, Enma told me. There's not much you can hide from an omnipresent being. And not only that, I'm an evil clone sent by this _Muraki_ person to act sweet and motherly and then bam! Kill you all. Have I got that right?"

They were all silent for a moment before Watari summoned up enough courage to speak. "Neina, we just thought it was suspicious—"

"Oh, I don't blame you for that," she stated, throwing her body into a chair. "I would've been suspicious of anyone as well, under the circumstances." She sighed, the anger seeming to ebb away to be replaced by remorse. "It's more an issue of trust. I told you the truth to any questions you asked, even if I was purposely evasive every now and again. And you can't fault me for that, it would be hypocritical," she said, annoyance flaring as Tsuzuki opened his mouth. He immediately closed it.

"What I wish you had done," she continued, "was just tell me right away you were suspicious. Then we could've avoided you following me around for the last couple of days. Not that you were very subtle about it," she scoffed. The reddened and she smiled ruefully. "Oh come now, did you expect me not to notice? I've been an agent in a secret organization for most of my life, I know when I'm being tailed."

"What do you mean we could have avoided that if we had just told you? Couldn't you just read our minds with our empathy?" Tatsumi asked. She glared at him.

"I knew you must've had a reason for it. I wasn't about to go poking around in your minds for it, though. It's against my morals to do things like that to _friends_," she stressed the last word, making them a tad more uncomfortable on purpose. "Again, it's an issue of trust. And I want you to trust me that I will not invade your personal privacy like that, if that is another issue here." They shook their heads, feeling rather low as Neina pointed out she had taken the high road over them. "As for what I meant before, that something to be discussed by all of us. If you could please call Hisoka back in, Tsuzuki." Tsuzuki rose and opened the door to beckon him in. He looked around at the rather reddened and uncomfortable men and a smug Neina in confusion. Smiling, she beckoned him to sit.

"Now then, my meeting with your king went well. And he has given me permission—although it sounded a lot like an order—for me to take you all on a field trip." They all stared in surprise. Neina nodded and sighed dramatically. "I had hoped to only take Hisoka, but now you three have been lumped in. Count yourselves lucky, few outsiders have been where we're going."

"Where's that?" Hisoka asked. She smiled, a contented look coming over her face.

"To me, and maybe you, it's home. But the rest of you can call it Avalon."

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Early the next morning they were in Watari's lab. Neina was painting on his floor with a large brush what appeared to be a seven pointed star encased in a heptagon. She was humming to herself, careful not to get any paint on her clothes. The were just a pair of jeans and a simple black tee and a red jacket that went down to her knees, but Wakaba had bought them for her out of her own pocket, so she was being especially careful to keep them clean and in good shape.

"So the place you lived was named Avalon, but it wasn't _the_ Avalon?" Watari asked again. She straightened and tossed the brush back into the paint can.

"Yep. The real isle of Avalon went missing years ago, or so they say. But our home was like a haven for magical beings, so the name just sort of fit."

"What, Magic Acres was taken?" Tsuzuki joked.

"Believe it or not, yeah! It's the name of a dairy farm in Pennsylvania." She laughed at the look on his face and arranged them around the star. "Okay, everyone ready?" They all nodded and she looked down to begin the spell. Suddenly her head snapped up. "Oh, quick question. Shinigami can fly, right?" The all looked at her in question but nodded. "Good. Just thought I'd make sure first." She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

" _Oh ye gods of wind and earth, arise at my call. My will is thyne for I am thy master._" They started as the paint suddenly shined and a opalescent barrier rose up all around them. "_Push us through the veil of the unseen, over the wheel of fate and from the unknown to the known. We will glide fearlessly forth on wings of divine power to our end. _" The barrier suddenly dropped and they were standing on the star painted on thin air hundreds of feet above a tree line. "And we're here!"

"Where's here?" Hisoka asked. It looked like a regular forest outline to him, no buildings in sight.

"This is the first stop. Teleportation spells aren't allowed to actually reach Avalon, intruders might use them to their advantage. The real entrance is around here. Now's a good time to activate your flight spells by the way!" she finished, releasing the barrier below them. While the shinigami remained in the air, however, Neina began to plummet to the earth below.

"Neina!" They all yelled. Each dove to rescue her, but ended up surpassing her as she floated above the trees.

"Yes?" She floated casually over to them, smiling innocently the whole time.

"You can fly?" Tsuzuki asked incredulously.

"Well yeah! I am a sorceress, remember? Flying is almost an instinct." She laughed and turned upside down as if hanging by her feet from an invisible rope. "Easy as pie!" Righting herself, she started zooming forward. "Let's go! The real entrance is down here! We're almost home!"

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Phew! . That was a long chapter, and I still didn't get where I was hoping to. And I typed it on a sprained finger! But we did find out a little more about Neina, like she can kick butt and has issues with trust.

The next chapter is a special bonus chapter about Neina's meeting with Enma, but then we get to see Avalon. _In that chapter _I promise we find out who Hisoka's father supposedly was and a little bit more about Neina's past. It's gonna be dramatic and emotional, so be prepared.

In the mean time, what's your vote? Is she a clone leading them into a trap or the real thing? I ask because this chapter may take a while and also I want to know what your opinion is. Thank you, good night!


	5. Super Special Bonus Chapter

Super Special bonus chapter: Neina and Enma's Meeting!

This is to clear up any question brought by the last chapter. Most likely however it will raise more questions, since that is inevitably what my writing seems to do.

Reflecting back now, I know I said the last chapter was long, but it really wasn't. It probably just seemed that way because I kept flip-flopping on my ideas, I wrote it all in one evening when I was sleep deprived, and I typed it on a finger I sprained in a door. Yes, I'm just that insanely dedicated to this story.

Anyway, on with the bonus! I do not own Enma or his staff, so don't sue me, kay?

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Neina blinked and realized she was now standing before two great doors, designed with gold flames running up them. Behind them was a rolling landscape dotted with cherry trees and a winding river. It was breath taking as they were several stories up standing on the threshold of Enmas personal meeting hall at the summit of a large hill. Truthfully she was surprised by the sudden change in scenery, but skillfully concealed it out of habit.

The man in the black cloak gently nudged her forward and she followed his lead up to the doors. The guard, a young woman surprisingly, noticed them and her eyes brightened from the depths of boredom. "Hello, Toma! Is this his lordship's guest?"

The man next to her nodded and Neina almost burst out laughing. She could barely see the delicate blush on his cheeks, but his straight back and the nervous action of his fingers rubbing against one another was a dead give away he had a crush on the woman at the door. Having her empathy most of her life, it had become easy to study human body language and learn what certain traits meant.

"Yes, this is Sakuya Coureneina Kurosaki."

"What a mouthful!" the woman laughed. "The king wants to speak to you very quickly before she goes in, Toma. It's nothing serious, I think, so don't be nervous."

He nodded again and Neina smiled because she knew the king wasn't the one that made him this nervous. Toma disappeared behind the doors and the woman turned to look at her. "I'm Madoka. It's nice to meet you, Neina-san. We've heard a lot about you."

"Really? Nothing incriminating I hope," she smiled and shook the guard's hand, the one not holding the particularly sharp looking spear.

"Oh no. Enma actually spoke admirably of you! He sounded surprised but pleased when he heard from Konoe that you had turned up in their department. We were all wondering what kind of…person you would be." She frowned a little and Neina's smile shifted to one of amusement.

"I take it I'm a bit of a let down, hmm?"

Madoka blushed and held up her hands. "No, no, no! It's just…I suppose we were all expecting some huge, powerful demoness or something. You look like a perfectly normal human." Still looking amused she knelt down. Off to the side in the dirt she drew a diamond and marked each of its sides with a line. Letting her hand hover above it, she moved it away with a gentle, graceful motion as if pulling something. From below the dirt sprang a tiny sprout. She pulled again, never really touching it, and a full white flower bloomed into life. The guard gasped and Neina straightened.

"I'm afraid I've never been quite 'normal', Madoka-san." The doors suddenly opened and Toma stepped out again.

"He's ready to see you, Kurosaki-san." Nodding, Neina walked calmly into the darkened hall. "Was that flower here before?" was the last thing she heard as the doors shut. Everything was dark and quiet. Neina waited patiently until the torches suddenly lit up down a hallway in front of her.

"Show off…"she muttered, strolling perfectly calm down the hall to the room at the end. A grand table was set up, a vase of what looked to be clear glass flowers glowing faintly in the center. A chandelier provided a little more light high above, allowing her to see the water running in silent waterfalls between stylized columns as substitute walls.

"Welcome back, Sakuya." Neina bowed low to the figure sitting at the head of the table. Though in darkness, she recognized the King of Hades readily.

"It is an honor, your highness." Rising she saw a chair at the other end of the table pull itself away in offering. She sat, her posture perfect, a diplomatic smile across her lips and her hands in her lap. "Thank you," she said clearly to either the king or the invisible host attending to them both, whichever it might be.

"Would you like something to drink? I can assure you, nothing is outside of reason."

"Tea will be fine. Oolong, with a teaspoon of sugar." The cup appeared before her, a waft of steam rising from it. "Thank you, again," she smiled as she sipped gingerly.

"I was surprised to say the least when I heard Sakuya 'The Dragon of the West' had suddenly been brought to my summons division in Japan after a twenty year disappearance," begain good naturedly.

"I prefer to be called Neina now. I left that life behind when the captain died."

"Yes…he gave you that nickname, I believe."

"If you are referring to 'The Dragon of the West', then yes. However, another called me Neina long before him."

"I see. It suits you though. Both do. I believe Neina means 'Rainwater', in your mother's language. But it can also be translated into 'purifier and life giver'. It's strange though that the full name—"

Neina suddenly brought her cup down loud on its saucer. She looked up, the polite smile faded to a neutral look. "May we change the topic, highness? A name is but a name, and we have established mine now. Why precisely did you wish to see me? Forgive me if I sound rude, but we were not exactly 'best friends' before now."

Enma was silent for a moment before he looked away. "I'm sorry. It has been a while since I've had to make small talk and I forgot that some issues may bring unwanted things to mind." Neina looked away from him as well, willing to admit what he said was true. "I have called you merely to verify that you have indeed returned." He suddenly laughed and Neina returned her gaze to him. "I was warned against this meeting by many though."

Neina laughed as well. "Yes, if I remember correctly, I am not welcomed by most of your advisers. They feel I am a bad influence on their precious monarch." He chuckled again, a deep and throaty sound that was surprisingly light coming from the god of death. Neina watched him for a moment before her eyes narrowed again. "There is more to this meeting than that. Why else have I been asked here?" He stopped laughing and looked at her straight. "Oh, I can't read you, neither physically nor empathically. Never could, probably never will. It's just a hunch."

He sighed, actually slouching over in a very un-kingly manner. "It is also to verify that you are who you say you are, Sakuya." She arched her eyebrows, as much in question of this statement as why he still chose to call her by her first name. "It is a theory among others in the Japan division that you may be…an evil clone."

She blinked, her face losing all decorum of distant civility and going straight into the look of extreme incredulity. "I'm sorry, I must still have tree bark in my ear. What did you just say?"

Enma sighed. "An evil clone, sent by a man named Muraki supposedly. That is the theory concocted by the men of the department who found you." Neina glared at hearing that name. It had echoed in her mind for a few days now. "I wished to see for myself and hopefully decide which it is."

"And have you?" she asked. She tried to keep the hostility she felt out of her voice. Those men were getting an earful when she returned.

He shook his head, his raven headdress following the motion. "No. Because of your lineage I cannot look into your past or your future. I'm afraid I am at a lost as to what to think."

"Wonderful…Is there any way to convince you I'm the real thing?"

"Perhaps…" She didn't like that tone in his voice. "I have also been told that one of my shinigami is actually your son?" he asked the last almost in disbelief.

She nodded awkwardly, a bit put off by the change in topic this time. "Yes, Hisoka Kurosaki is my son. And I trust you have been taking good care of him?"

"As well as can be expected. His job is as dangerous as yours was, if not more so." She nodded again, lost in thought for a moment. "Who is his father?" That brought her back and she almost spit the sip of tea she had taken all over the fine white table cloth.

"What the hell, if you'll pardon the pun, kind of question is that!?" she cried out indignantly. "I was married when he was born. Who do you think is the father?! And you had better consider your answer carefully, highness."

Enma was laughing quite hard now and gently motioned for her to sit again. "Calm yourself, I was merely joking. I know you would never let another man touch you like that but him." She sat with snort, obviously not having been amused by his implication. "I ask because I have also been informed that you are going to take him to Avalon with you."

Her eyebrows shot up in surprise. "How did you know?" She smacked her hand against her head. "Of course. Toma-san must've been listening at the door. Or did you do that personally?"

"No, Toma told me. He overheard you. Avalon still stands?"

Neina's gaze was distant. "To the best of my knowledge." She looked up in question. "Come to think of it, how did you know I was missing? You can't get into Avalon."

Enma actually looked saddened now. "Many of Avalon's residents, almost all of them, arrived on the same day twenty years ago. They told us what happened."

Neina stopped breathing. Her tea, Enma and the grand room were all forgotten. Her mind was flashing with the briefest memories of her home, her friends and neighbors. "Almost…all of them?" she rasped. He nodded and her breath began coming in short little gasps. Immediately she tried to calm herself, sealing away that hurtful emotion until she could release it in private. But it may release itself sooner depending on the answer to her next question. "What of…my husband? Has he been reborn already?"

Enma straightened in his chair. "He did not arrive. We assumed you two were together." Neina looked up in shock. He had never come? That was impossible! Deciding not to delve any further for now, though it pained and tormented her already, she moved the conversation along.

"Why did you ask? Does this have a point?" This was too much to absorb in one sitting. She felt on the verge of spontaneous combustion, but barely kept herself together with rationality.

"I want you to take others with you to Avalon." Neina was about to object but he held up a restraining hand. She silenced, out of respect as well as knowing who was the more powerful of the two of them. "I do not want any of my men alone with you, not until we are certain of who you are. Bring back proof that you are you, and I will have no objection to you remaining here. But if not, I will have you destroyed the moment you return. Is that clear?" his last words were spoken with such cold authority that she gulped.

"Have I lost your trust, Enma-sama?" she asked seriously. "After all I have done for you and Meifu? For this entire world?"

He was silent for a long moment. The water walls still crashed without a sound, making the silence seem stronger. "No. Sakuya Coureneina Kurosaki still has my trust. But you must prove that you are she."

"I understand, highness," she said quietly. "May I have a piece of paper and a pen?" The appeared without a word and Neina quickly scribbled a message to Hisoka and the others to meet her in their briefing room when she returned. "Have this sent ahead of me. They are the other men I have chosen to accompany us." The note she held vanished and she relaxed against the chair. "I suppose telling you I'm not evil or a clone is pointless until my return."

"Not entirely," he tried to sound light. "Every little bit helps. I have always respected Sakuya. She did a lot for every world. I'm sure you would be a great asset to us." Neina rolled her eyes, not surprised that this related to her usefulness somehow. It always did, eventually.

The doors behind her suddenly opened and she turned to see Toma walking in. "I believe now is a fine time to depart, Kurosaki-san." Enma was all business once again. She rose and bowed gracefully to him once again.

"Goodbye, my lord. I hope, for my sake, we meet again soon." He bowed his head once in return before Toma led her out. "Say, Toma-san," she whispered before they were at the door at the end of the hallway. "You ever think about asking Madoka-san out?" Toma blushed cherry red and coughed.

"That would be unprofessional, miss." Neina laughed as he grasped her shoulder, whisking her away the moment there feet hit the ground outside.

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Yeah, just a quick side chapter I typed up, in case you were wondering what happened when Neina met with King Enma. It was fun to write! But, onto the important chapter!

**REVIEW PLEASE!** Tell me what you think! Is she a clone or is she the real deal! I want to know what you think.


	6. Homecoming

Chapter 5 (technically) and 6! The pinnacle chapters. Well, _some_ pinnacle chapters, I haven't decided how many I'll have yet.

**laustic**, thank you for reviewing so often and so nicely. I'm glad you like my story. Thank you too, **Saphira112**, it's nice to know what you think. Did you read ch. 4? Something in your review gave me the impression you hadn't. But **AngelofLight**, I haven't heard from you in a while. Did I lose your interest?

Everyone else, REVIEW please.

Anyway, on with the show. Disclaimer: if I did own them, why wouldn't I just be publishing this as an actual story?

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Neina swept over the tree tops with her braid trailing behind her like a dragon's tail. Hisoka, Tsuzuki, Watari and Tatsumi were close behind following her every move. When she dove down into a clearing they were right behind her.

"This is it!" She landed and walked over to a circle of large rocks. Kneeling down, she ran her hand through the over grown grass. "Man, this grass got tall while I was gone. I can't find it."

"Find what?" Hisoka asked. Standing, Neina walked over to them. Turning back around, she held up her arm and made a slicing motion in the air. The resulting air current sliced through the grass effortlessly. Everyone's eyes grew large in amazement, but Neina just traipsed right back as if nothing had happened.

"This!" Kneeling again, she pushed her hand into what appeared to be a rabbit hole. With a grunt she pulled what looked like a handle attached to a long chain from within it. Twisting it several times, she released it and it flew back into place with an audible clang. Then there was a low rumbling and a section of the ground with in the stone circle lifted up. Inside was a staircase leading down under the ground.

"Oh yeah, that's not suspicious," Tsuzuki muttered to the other two next to him. "This is just the kind of trap an evil clone would lead us into." They nodded, having to agree that this was a bit convenient.

There was a loud crack as they were all struck across the cheek with a vine. A very pissed off Neina was glaring at them as the vine wound its way back into the earth. "The next person to utter the words 'evil' and 'clone' in the same sentence is going to be on the blasting end of a very painful spell of my choosing. And I can guarantee shinigami or not, it's going to take awhile to grow back your limbs." They all gulped and nodded. Hisoka was just looking confusedly between them.

Neina led the way down the stairs. At the bottom she pulled a lever and the section of earth above them rejoined the grassy knoll seamlessly.

"Its kind of dark in here," Watari said, his voice echoing eerily.

"Working on it," Neina called. A light suddenly appeared above their heads, casting a gentle but insistent glow all around them. She looked up, surprised to see Hisoka still poised on the steps and looking a little troubled. "Hisoka, are you alright?" she asked. He blushed and plunked down the rest of the steps.

"I'm fine. Stop looking at me like that, all of you." He glared at them and most turned away in recognition of his embarrassment. Neina turned around and continued walking but shrugged.

"If it's about the dark, you don't have to be defensive. I don't like small spaces so I was always uncomfortable in this hallway. Everyone has something that makes them a little wary. If it gets to be too much, you can hold my hand. Since we're both empaths, our powers should cancel each other out if I match their power output."

"Don't treat me like a little kid!" he yelled.

Neina narrowed her eyes at him, not quite a glare but obviously not happy. "I wasn't trying to treat you like a kid; I was trying to be supportive," she said low. Hisoka winced. This conversation seemed all too familiar, but the tone was different. "You're my son. I want you feel safe when I'm around," she added sadly. "But really, there's nothing to worry about. I know these caves pretty well and there's a short cut up ahead. It will lead right to our old home." They turned left at a three way intersection and came to an abrupt halt before a wall of rubble.

Neina sweat dropped, looking rather confused. "That's weird. I don't remember a cave in here."

"Well, it has been twenty years, Neina-san," Tatsumi pointed out.

"Can't you just blast through it?" Watari and Tsuzuki asked at once. "Jinx, you owe me a coke!" Watari said. Tsuzuki sighed, closing his mouth.

"If I did that, I would probably start a chain reaction and bury us all alive." The blanched, more for the fact that she looked like she was actually considering it than the actual statement.

"Is there another way around?" Tatsumi quickly asked.

"Yep. There's a chamber in the very center that leads everywhere. Lets hope that's not caved in too, or we'll have to take our chances." She pushed through them and led them back to the three way section. Taking the right passage this time, she led them through a complicated pattern of twists and turns.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" Hisoka asked.

"Of course! I mean, it's been a while since I've had to take the long way home, but I know the way well because I used to visit a friend down here."

"Someone actually lives here?" he asked incredulously. The others looked equally flabbergasted.

"Not live, work. I wonder if he's still here? If he's not…" Neina trailed off into thought. The hallway suddenly opened up into a huge room. Despite the little light following them over head, most of it was still in shadow. "Well, this is the convergence point. Ours should be the one over—"

A sudden roar caused them all to jump. From the darkness emerged the head of a very old dragon, colored a silvery-purple with a shaggy white beard. "Who dares come into my domain! I, the guardian of…of…of the elevators!" Tsuzuki was forward in an instant, a sutra between his fingers. But Neina shoved him aside to stand before the dragon.

"Oi, Hamarabi! Down here!" she called, cupping her hands over her mouth. The dragon lowered his head to her level and everyone else backed away.

"Eh? You know my name, little walking fish?"

"Put your glasses on, you old coot," Neina sighed. A claw came from the shadows to place a pair of spectacles on the edge of his nose.

"Hmmm….Neina-chan! Is that you?" Neina smiled fondly.

"Yeah, its me. Long time no see, huh? These are my acquaintances, Tatsumi, Tsuzuki and Watari. And," she suddenly grabbed Hisoka by the sleeve and pulled him in front of the elder dragon, "I bet you can't guess who this is!"

Hisoka tensed as the dragon leaned closer, inspecting him. He gently sniffed the air around the boy and pulled back. "Seems familiar…but I'm afraid my memory is failing."

"It's Hisoka," she stated.

"You're joking!" Hamarabi leaned in close again. "By the gods, he does look like a nearly perfect combination of you two!"

"It's…nice to meet you?" he said uncertainly. The dragon laughed, sending puffs of smoke towards the ceiling.

"Oh, this isn't the first we've met, child. Your mother brought you down to meet me when you were but a few days old!"

"So you saw Hisoka when he was a baby?" Tsuzuki asked in wonder. He had often wondered what the boy would've looked like when he was young.

"Oh yes. He was a very quiet child, if I recall correctly."

"Hamarabi is an old friend of my family," Neina explained. "He's also the elevator technician. Speaking of which, I'm sorry to seem in such a hurry, but I want to show Hisoka our old home. Can you start up the elevator for us?"

The dragon nodded. "Of course, it's no trouble at all. I've come here everyday, mostly out of habit, in case anyone returned." He suddenly looked fierce. "After that day, I didn't know how many escaped. I was glad you did, but then _he _followed." He growled in his throat and the shinigami looked to one another in confusion. "I tried to bring the tunnel down on him, but he was too fast. What happened, Neina? Why do you not look as though you've aged at all in all this time?"

Neina looked saddened and petted his snout. "I'm sorry to worry you, old friend. But the story is too long to explain now. Later?"

He nodded his great shaggy head gently. "Yes, that would be fine. After you have looked around, join me for an early supper. The usual spot." He smiled, his eyes crinkling in mirth.

She looked back to the others. No one had an objection apparently. "Agreed. Now, lets get going." Neina led the others over to what looked like a glass shaft jutting out from the wall. Pulling on a chord, part of the glass opened to reveal an inner room. "Everybody in. Please keep your hands and feet inside the elevator at all times." They filed in one by one but she paused before she entered.

"Hamarabi?" he turned to her from a wall of pipes at the other end. "Have you seen Hokuto in all this time?" The dragon looked surprised and then utterly sorrowful.

"No. I never saw him leave." Neina closed her eyes, breathing deep against a wave of pain. She bit her lip and nodded.

"I see. Thank you. We'll see you at dinner." She tried to smile, but it looked more like she wanted to cry. She backed through the door and shut it. "Ready!" Hamarabi turned back to the wall of pipes and brought one of them down. Taking a deep breath, a rush of fire was sent shooting down the pipe. There was a small quake beneath them, and then they were suddenly shot into the air on a jet of flame.

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The Elevator stopped abruptly. Everyone but Neina was sprawled on the ground, dizzy and slightly nauseous. She looked to either side of her and busted out laughing. "You guys are such wimps! I used to ride this thing twice a day."

"Pardon me, Neina-san, but I'm not used to elevators that take turns," Tatsumi said dryly. She kept laughing until she stepped out of the glass dome they had arrived in.

The room was in shambles. The walls, which must've once been white and pristine, were now cracked and covered in moss and ivy. The floor was upturned by tree roots as thick as her arms and scattered in mulch and dried leaves.

"Wow…the maid's day off, huh?" Watari tried to sound light to make the mood a little less heavy. Tatsumi gave him an exasperated look. "Um, yeah. You okay, Neina?"

She was still and quiet, looking around in disbelief. Then she bolted up a nearby flight of stairs. They ran after her, shouting for her to wait. When they came to the top of the steps she was gone.

"Dammit! Where'd she go?" Tsuzuki said crossly.

"I don't know. Her shields are incredibly strong, I can't sense her."

"Alright, we'll split up and search the house. If anyone needs help for whatever reason, send out a signal," Tatsumi said.

"Are you sure this is the best idea, Tatsumi?" Watari asked as they headed off in one direction. "I mean, safety in numbers, right?"

"Do you still believe she is an evil clone?" He looked around a little, fearing a sudden assault. "I mean, strictly from a monetary point of view, this is a bit much to set up. Muraki wouldn't be this desperate to lure us away. And that dragon knew her by sight and didn't sense anything wrong with her. He may be old, but a dragon's senses a far superior to ours."

"Good point, Captain Frugal. For once you money sense came in handy," Watari said cheekily. He ran off up another flight of steps before his partner or the shadows could retaliate.

Hisoka had gone up stairs as well, after convincing Tsuzuki he would be alright on his own. 'Honestly, that man can be so clingy,' he thought. He paused in his annoyed walk when he heard shuffling in one of the rooms. A door was slightly ajar and there was light spilling into the dimness of the hallway in a small rectangular beam. His hand over the pocket with his sutras, he moved forward and opened the door a little wider.

Inside the room was a large four poster bed, with an extra blanket of dust and cobwebs and leaves. The large doors leading out onto the balcony were open and had been open for some time, as evident by the rust and dirt around them. But off to the other side of the bed was a closet, thrown wide open, and Neina's hunched form quietly sobbing.

"Neina?" he asked uncertainly. She jerked in surprise, her arm coming up to swipe at her eyes quickly. She turned, trying to offer a reassuring smile.

"Hey. Sorry I ran off," she hiccupped a little bit and turned back to whatever was in her lap. "I…couldn't believe it. It seems like just a few days ago I was here and everything was so…beautiful. So shiny and comforting. Now it looks like the forest is taking over. I was afraid that the things I was looking for would be damaged."

He shifted from foot to foot uncomfortably, wondering if he should stay where he was or go away. "What is that?" She perked up at his interest, smiling a little more believably.

"Come here, I'll show you." Grunting, he resigned himself to the hole he dug and walked over. Sitting down next to her, she offered him one corner of a photo album that looked fairly good for being so old. Turning the page, she smiled with obvious adoration at one photo in particular. "It's you father."

Hisoka's eyes went wide. The man in the photo resembled Nagare Kurosaki frighteningly. But his hair was a darker brown, like fall leaves, and pulled back into a stubby pony tail at the nape of his neck. And, the most obvious difference was the amused smile in his eyes and about his lips. To sum up, he was amazingly handsome but looked like he actually had a sense of humor.

"That's…my father?"

"Yes. Hokuto Kurosaki." She traced his cheek in the photo gently.

"Kurosaki? Why does he have the same last name…as them?"

She frowned and turned the page. More pictures of Hokuto, some groups shots with unfamiliar people, and some with Neina. "He didn't like to talk about it, but I found out eventually. Evidently his mother was a daughter of the Kurosaki's who got pregnant and ran off with a traveler. She was disowned .But he took her last name in her honor, since his father didn't really have one. If I total it up from a brief glimpse of their family tree, he would be Nagare's cousin."

"His…cousin?" Hisoka stared at the man in the photos. Could the man he had grown up to call father really just be his father's cousin?

Neina nodded, turning the page again. This one was pictures of just the two of them, with one of a very pregnant Neina. "Yes. He tried to go home once, he told me. But it didn't go very well. He was the son of a 'traitor' to their family. But he still kept the name, more in his mother's memory than theirs."

"Where is he? In another tree?"

Her hand clenched in sudden emotion. "I…I don't know," she said with a sob. Tears were running down her cheeks in rivers. "He's gone…he must be, because otherwise I wouldn't feel so alone…" she sobbed and hunched over the book, holding it to her chest as if the pictures would ease the pain. "I want to be hopeful…I had hoped…that someone knew where he was. That Hamarabi had seen him escape…or Enma had admitted him into the afterlife. Anything than just not knowing. But if he's not here, then…where else?"

Hisoka awkwardly put his hand on her shoulder. He knew that she probably wanted more, needed more, like Tsuzuki did when he got like this. But he couldn't bring himself to do it. Even if they were similar, they weren't the same. It was a strange thought that he may know his best friend better than his mother.

Neina's own hand covered his. He was surprised to find they were smaller, daintier, like an artist's. She sniffed and hiccupped, until she was under control.

"Right. I can grieve later," she said brokenly. "For now, I'm sure your friends are tired of listening outside the door."

"How'd she know?" Tsuzuki whispered rather loudly.

"Because a ninja you are definitely not!" Neina retorted. Hisoka sweat dropped and got up to open the door. All three men came in looking rather sheepish.

"If you're worried about me getting angry because of your snooping, don't be. Truth is, I'm glad I don't have to explain again." She sighed and grabbed a bag out of the closet, shaking it with her free hand to get rid of most of the dust. She put the album inside, slung the bag over her shoulder and then went towards another door across the room.

The men followed, more curious now than anything, and almost tripped when the came into the room. It was a library, huge and grand, at least two stories tall. They were standing on a pathway that led all the way around the second story. Neina had turned on the light for a huge chandelier and the shelves indeed reached all the way up to the ceiling. A mosaic in the center of the floor depicted a black dragon wrapped around the moon.

"Holy smokes! How did our library ever satisfy you?" Watari yelled, his voice echoing faintly.

"Firstly, there's no need to yell, I'm two feet away from you. Secondly, this isn't just my collection. I inherited many of these and a lot are Hokuto's. And some we were just keeping safe for friends. I won't be taking any of them though. They're safer in here, within the barrier." She jumped over the railing and floated for a moment before touching the ground.

"Barrier?" they all asked.

She nodded and walked towards yet another door. They wondered where this one could lead. "Yeah. This house was built just for us by a bunch of old friends. One of them set up a barrier that's nearly impenetrable. Only a very powerful god could probably get through. But that only keeps them out. They could still destroy the house, and everything in it, from the outside. But then they would also destroy whatever they wanted that was inside."

The next room looked like a medieval weapons closet. The walls were lined with swords and crossbows and maces. Neina strolled down the aisle until she came to a glass cabinet. She placed all five of her fingers on the glass and they watched as it glowed and the door popped open. Picking up a small box, she opened it to reveal two silver engraved rings.

"Rings? Why are you keeping those in an armory?" Watari asked.

She smirked and placed one ring on each middle finger. "Oh, these are very special rings. They've been with me for years. I'll show you how they work later." Neina put a few more of the boxes from the cabinet into the bag. She then closed it and walked back out.

"Well, that about does it for the house," she said. Looking around her, eyes were distant in contemplation. "This is gonna take a lot of work to fix up. Looks like I'll be staying in Meifu for a while." She said the last with a devilish smirk in their direction. Tatsumi grunted, making a mental note to try and find an apartment nearby, lest they want her to stay in the Ministry building forever.

"So, what now? I assume our dinner with Hamarabi isn't for a while," Watari said. He was looking forward to that. It was rare to find a dragon living outside of the imaginary world and he wanted to ask him a few questions.

"Not for another couple of hours, at least. But that's fine, because I have a couple of other places I want to look into. The first is my old friend Runa's house." Hisoka vaguely remembered that name. Something about her supposed to have been taking care of him.

Neina led them all back out through huge double doors in the library. They led to a hallway that opened into a large entry hall with the same black dragon and moon emblem in the rug. She made a bee line for the door in front of it. Taking a large breath, she opened the door.

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The trees were choking the path away from the door. The stone walkway was a wreck of roots and cracks. Neina sighed and stepped out, turning to look at the façade of her old home. The vines had climbed all the way up, trying to cling to the glass of the dome that marked where the library was.

"That's going to be a bitch to take care of…" she muttered. The others joined her and she led the way carefully down the path.

"Where to next?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Runa's. I have a few questions for her…" The men felt sorry for her, seeing the look on the blond woman's face.

"So she lives here too?" Tsuzuki pressed.

"Yeah, she's a witch." The all stopped and stared at her back with mouths slightly agape. Neina turned her head and rolled her eyes. "What, after everything, that comment throws you? I thought you were shinigami." She continued on and they jogged down the path to catch up.

"So, this Runa is a witch, and you are a sorceress?" Tsuzuki clarified.

"Yep."

There was a pause before he asked "What's the difference?" Neina stopped this time and arched her eyebrows.

"Is he serious?" she asked.

"I'll explain it, Neina-san, you just concentrate where we're going," Watari said quickly. She shrugged and continued forward. "Don't say things like that!" Watari whispered to the others. "Witchcraft and sorcery are very different arts, and to master each completely takes great skill. A few of the witches and sorcerers are at odds with one another because of this. We're lucky Neina evidently very accepting because another sorcerer might've barbecued us on the spot."

"Not true," they heard Neina laugh up ahead. She smiled at them while walking backwards down the treacherous path. "I have a few witch traits in me, so I get along with both. I'm like a mediator. I was just surprised because I thought most people familiar with the occult knew the difference. Please, continue Watari, you're doing very well." She turned back around and jumped over a fallen log.

"But I really don't know the difference," Tsuzuki defended. Hisoka and Tatsumi nodded, evidently also confused.

Watari shook his head. "You know, it would help if you guys studied more than just the dessert menu, the budget or the library inventory now and again." Watari's explanation was pretty long, so here's a summary: Witches (and their male counter parts wizards) use magic through the control of demons, minor and major, and potions and spells. Those who use sorcery can control the natural elements, wind, water, earth, fire, etc. and use them in spells.

The all nodded, eventually understanding this from the lengthy explanation. "So, what did you mean you have 'witch traits'?" Hisoka asked.

Neina did something then that they had not seen before. She blushed, and looked enough like Hisoka when she did that Tsuzuki almost tripped. "Well, I can do some potions, nothing major. And some of their spells, that's how I was able to teleport us here. But other than that it's total disaster when I try! I mean, I used to do so much property damage when I was in training…it was horribly embarrassing." She sighed, remembering many of the occasions quite clearly. "I'm one of the world's foremost sorcery experts, but transmuting an apple into an orange would blow up half this forest if I tried."

Hisoka nodded, for once knowing where she came from. It was hard when you couldn't do everything as well as someone else and accepting your own limitations.

Neina's head jerked up and she smiled. "There it is! That connects us to the rest of Avalon!" She pointed at a large gate with out doors, green metal with ivy climbing up it. And beyond it were the ruins of a once beautiful village square.

The stones were covered in moss and the wood was rotted, but burn marks were evident. Most of the houses had collapsed from what looked like both age and a great force striking it. In the center was a crumbled fountain that had once been in the shape of a fairy holding a jug of water in her arms.

Neina took in the sight with wide, unbelieving eyes. "All of it?" she breathed. Her head swung slowly from side to side, not missing a single detail.

The men drank it all in bitterly. It was apparent that something very violent had happened here long ago. Hisoka could feel it best. He could feel the residual fear and hatred in the air, foul enough that it still had not dissipated. He was careful to keep his hands in his pockets, not wanting to relive anyone's last moments.

In the opposite fashion, Neina took a deep nervous breath and let her shields down a tiny bit. The sight of Avalon on fire, the shadows of her friends and neighbors screaming and running for their lives from men in black cloaks brandishing swords nearly made her heave her breakfast on to the cobbled walkway. Neina's shields dropped completely from the shock and memories of fire and death pierced into her. She gasped and pitched backward, her eyes going dull as her psyche shut down in an attempt to keep them out.

Hisoka and Tsuzuki caught her as she fell. "Neina!"

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Holy mother of god, this chapter is finally done! And it used to be even longer. I thought I was going to have an aneurism trying to get this part over with, and it's only technically half done! I torture myself by never doing anything simple.

Ch. 6 should be up soon too. If you're wondering, I was on a trip and didn't have access to the net for a couple of days, so I just finished this chappie and then worked on the next. Onward!


	7. Acceptance of Things Then and Now

Chapter 6! It's long, and a lot happens, so pay attention. I realize I focused a lot on Neina and her reactions last time, so this time I'm focusing more on the others.

**laustic:** That's what I was going for, thank you! Tsuzuki and Hisoka are just starting to realize that they have feelings for each other (that will be clearer later, I promise) so I wanted them to feel awkward but inclined to be sweet. And since Neina does love Hisoka, she wants him to feel the same back. But she knows that he's rather uncomfortable on the subject, so she tries not to cross any kind of hidden lines. I think love, when it first starts out, really is just sweet and awkward at the same time!

Disclaimer: Not mine, no sue.

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Tsuzuki shook the woman being held between him and Hisoka gently. "Neina? Neina, wake up. What's wrong?" he said quietly. She was as still as stone and indeed looked as if she had been carved from the most perfect white marble.

"I'm too late!" They all looked up to see an old man hobbling from another path towards them. "Drat my memory, I'm too late!" he growled.

"Who are you?" Tatsumi asked, blocking his way purposefully. The shadows around the trees twitched, ready on his mark.

"Meh, who do you think would choose to live around here anymore?! It's me, Hamarabi!" Tatsumi blinked looking the old man up and down. He had great falls of white hair falling from his head and chin, and was wearing clogs and a pale purple robe whose color did indeed look familiar. But…

"Hamarabi is a dragon," the accountant stated.

"How very observant of you. And as you can now observe, when you're as old as I am, you learn a few tricks like changing your form. Now, step aside sonny!" The man moved Tatsumi aside with his walking stick and clacked over to the fallen woman. "Blast! She's gone into slumber."

"Is she okay?" Watari asked, taking her heart rate.

"She'll be fine. Because of her empathy she can be easily over burdened with emotions and memories if her shields are let down. It only occurred to me when I was home preparing dinner the effect of going into town now might have on her. This is a defensive mechanism her psyche engages in times of extreme stress."

He turned around and started back up the path. "Well, come on. She'll be more comfortable back at my place."

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Tsuzuki placed Neina on the bed, and pushed the idea that it reminded him of the first time he met Hisoka as far from his mind as possible. He left the room, closing the door behind him, and sat down at the table with everyone else.

"So, she will be alright?" Hisoka asked.

"Yep. Just needs to rest and sort her memories from other people's memories. She's strong, that one, even if she doesn't see it." He put a kettle over a fire in the fire place and sat back down.

"What do you mean?" Tatsumi asked.

Hamarabi gazed at them from beneath his particularly bushy eyebrows. "She doesn't talk much about her past, hmmm?"

"No," Hisoka answered. "We really only met a few days ago. I found her in a tree."

"You what?!" Hamarabi exclaimed. "Oh, blast it, what happened when I wasn't looking?" He regarded Hisoka with a stern expression. "Do you know anything of her past?"

"The closest she really came was telling me she couldn't understand where I came from, not really, because she had grown up with loving parents."

Hamarabi nodded, his eyes in the past. "Yes, for all of eight years." He regarded them all even more sternly now, bordering on grandfatherly consternation. "I'll tell you a little bit, if only for you to understand what may happen when she wakes up."

"What happens when who wakes up?" came a monotone voice behind them. They turned quickly to seen Neina standing in the doorway, her eyes half-lidded and her face expressionless.

"Neina, you shouldn't be up so soon, not after the shock you just had," Watari said.

"Shock?" Neina tilted her head, the same monotone never leaving her voice. Hisoka shivered but reached out and placed the tips of his fingers on her forehead. Absolutely nothing was coming from her, but not the same way when her shields were raised. It was like trying to read the emotions of a doll. "What are you doing?" she asked.

Hamarabi stood and took her by the arm. "Neina, you're still a little weak from earlier. Rest would be the most logical course of action right now."

Neina silently contemplated this before nodded stiffly. "Agreed. My power is a little lower than usual. I will rest." He turned her back towards the bedroom and closed the door again when she was in.

"What the hell was that?" Hisoka exclaimed. After being around the woman for so long-and reminding him a lot of a certain purple eyed man next to him-that just didn't seem right.

The man-disguised dragon sighed and reseated himself. "That was Neina's defense mechanism. When her empathy is overloaded it shuts down, and in effect shuts down the rest of her emotions. She usually sleeps a lot when this happens, to regain her strength."

"So it's like her hard-drive crashed and she's rebooting," Watari said more to himself than anyone else.

"I don't know what you just said, but sure, let's go with that. Anyway, it's only temporary. She's learned how to deal with this kind of pain." He noticed the bag Tsuzuki was holding and gestured to it. "What is that?"

"Oh, it's hers. She dropped it when she passed out. It has a few things in it, mostly boxes. And a photo album."

"A photo album? Let me see that." Tsuzuki passed the bag over and Hamarabi took out the book. "Ah, yes. This will help explain I think." He flipped through the book to the very beginning and set it onto the table. "That is Neina and her family, many years ago." The all moved in and stared at the photos.

"Whoa, she looked even more like Hisoka when she was a kid!" Watari exclaimed. Indeed, the first photo on the first page was of a skinny child with cropped blond hair looking off into the distance. Others were of the same child and an older couple, a beautiful woman and distinguished Japanese gentlemen.

"Yes, she preferred her hair short back then. She was a rambunctious tomboy. Annoyed her mother to no end. Her father used to joke 'the gods gave us a daughter with the soul of a son.' But they loved her very dearly."

He took the kettle off the fire and began to brew a pot of tea. "The first time this really happened was when she was eight. On her eight birthday, to be more precise. That was the day her parents died." The men's eyes widened. "Yes. Her family was attacked that day, and she came home to the thick of it. Her mother died protecting her." Hamarabi coughed, but it might've been to cover up a small sob.

"They came after her next. We found that out later. Men were sent from the Council of the Faye, and they found her…sitting in the middle of her living room…cold and emotionless and dripping in blood without a scratch on her." The men looked at the smiling child in the photos and let a small shiver pass over all of them.

"When they touched her she collapsed. She was in a coma for a bout three months before she woke up, and even then she never said a word. Just sat on a bed at the hospital and stared into space. Then she met him." He turned a few pages and revealed photos of a slightly older Neina next to a man with long black hair. Her smile was more uncertain now, as if she were out of practice. "That is her teacher and mentor, Sagara-san. He took her in after her parents died and taught her how to use her gifts."

He sighed and brought the tea over to their table. "Sadly, that was not to last either. She was with him for two years, had come to think of him as a brother or second father, and then he too was killed right in front of her. He hid her in a storage closet when their tower was raided, by men from the same organization who killed her parents. She recognized their insignia on their cloaks." He shook his head. "Afterwards, she locked her heart away completely. She didn't laugh or smile for years. Instead, she focused solely on her studies, and became the youngest master sorceress ever at the age of 13."

"That's horrible…" Tsuzuki muttered. The others agreed, about to close the book.

"Hold it! Don't you want to hear the happy ending?" They blinked and he turned the pages. Now they looked at pictures of a teen Neina in a group of thirty or so other people, grinning from ear to ear. "When she was fourteen, she joined the Dark Guard. She did it mostly for their information network; she was planning on finding the organization who murdered her loved ones and destroying them all. But then she met your father…" He smiled and shook his head. "Honestly, if those two weren't meant for each other, no one else in the world was."

"So she gave up to become a housewife?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Well, no, not exactly…"

A sudden rustle from the bedroom caused them all to get up and go look into it. Neina was sitting up in the bed, her eyes open, and she looked up at them as they came in. Tsuzuki was the closest, so he went over and knelt down next to her. "You feeling any better, Neina?"

Neina regarded him expressionlessly for a moment before reaching over, grasping Hamarabi's walking stick and cracking him over the head. He fell to the floor and Neina smirked. "I am now, Mr. 'So she gave up to become a housewife'. For your information, I rarely give up. I got my revenge and then some on those bastards."

"You hit me with a stick!" he yelled, standing up in a flash to glare at her.

"Keep looking at me like that and you'll see what else I can do with a stick!" she yelled back. They began to yell a lot, throwing insults like hand grenades.

"Well, now we know where Hisoka got his temper," Watari said quietly to Tatsumi. Hisoka just sighed, his hands over his ears as he watched them.

Hamarabi stepped between the two before it got actually violent and calmed Neina with a gently hand to her shoulder. "So, you heard me gossiping about you, eh?" he asked sheepishly. She looked at him for a good moment before shrugging.

"Well, I suppose we can't say it's gossip if it's true. And in light of the circumstances I'll forgive you. This time. How long till dinner?"

"You have enough time. Go, I'll keep an eye on your guests." Neina nodded, obviously grateful.

"I'll see you soon, all of you." With that she sped away, out the door and into the encroaching dark of twilight.

"Where is she going?" Tatsumi asked.

Hamarabi placed a pot over the fire and began filling it with water. "Everyone has their own way to deal with stress, Mr.…Tatsumi, was it? Neina's just gone to her usual spot."

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Neina stood on top a cliff over looking a huge lake. A water fall cast itself over the edge next to her and the sun was just barely going down below the horizon to her left. Sighing in contentment, she ran and jumped over the edge to the water below.

The water was cool and soothing. There was no noise below the surface, just the dull roar of it pushing against her. Rising up to the surface, sound returned with a pop. She floated on her back, kicking a little so her body traveled toward the small island in the center of the lake. On the island was a great tree covered in white blossoms, its roots snaking into the water.

The tree began to shine faintly, a pale pink glow like dawn light. "Hello again, little daughter," came a voice as soft and sweet like wind chimes.

Neina smiled, immediately feeling even more soothed. "Long time no see, Kanohana. But I suppose that's a different story for you."

"I'm afraid the years have simply blended together, young one. As old as I am, you fail to notice how many times they past."

"I'm guessing you know everything like you normally do, huh?"

There was a pause before the tree spirit answer. "Yes, I know of what has transpired. One of my roots even reaches as far as that great Ministry you have stayed at. And I know of your son and all he has suffered. And all you have suffered, in only a few short hours."

Neina drew in a shuddering breath. "Kanohana…do you remember your promise?"

The tree's branches suddenly dipped down and scooped her up; cradling her close like a mother would her infant. "Of course, my child." Neina sobbed and sniffed before her tears began to flow freely down her cheeks in rivulets.

"I hate feeling so weak…" she sobbed. "I feel like it's my fault…because I wasn't strong enough to stop it…" Kanohana stroked her hair and wiped at her tears with soft leaves. "What would they all see if they saw the 'Dragon of the West' sobbing like a little child?" she asked bitterly. "They would laugh, more at themselves for ever fearing or respecting such a coward…"

"Shhhh…" Kanohana whispered, her already ethereal voice lowering so much that Neina had to try and silent herself to hear. "I will never lose my respect for you, little one. You who are like my child shall always be loved and revered by this old tree." Neina quieted and closed her eyes. She was still crying, but not as violently as before.

"Thank you, Mama Kanohana."

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Hisoka sat in the chair next to the bed Neina had previously occupied, flipping through the photo album. Neina had been gone for almost two hours and the sun was now below the lip of the horizon. A soft knock made him look up from the picture of a very grumpy twelve-year old Neina reading a book under a tree.

"Hey there. What're doing?" Tsuzuki asked as he walked in.

"Just looking at some of these pictures. Neina's lived an interesting life," he admitted.

Tsuzuki nodded, and sat down on the bed. "She's an interesting lady…" he agreed, rubbing the sore spot on his head. "She reminds me of you."

"Really? She reminds me more of you."

Tsuzuki winced. 'Should I be insulted?' he thought to himself. "Besides being interesting, what do you think of her?"

Hisoka arched his eyebrows at him in question. "Uh, she's okay, I guess. Kind of flighty, a little strange and unpredictable. Like I said, she reminds me of you. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, ah, n-no reason really. Just curious," He evaded. Hisoka narrowed his eyes, not missing the sudden spike of nervousness before it disappeared beneath his shields.

"Tsuzuki…"

"What, I'm telling the truth, seriously!"

"Tsuzuki, you may think I'm having trouble reading you, but I five-year old would know something's up. Talk!"

Tsuzuki gulped and tried not to look his younger partner in the face. "Well, we had this sort of theory when she first came…" he muttered.

"What theory?"

Tsuzuki shifted his gaze to look at the wrinkles of the sheet. "Oh, it's silly really…"

"Tsuzuki..." That tone was bad. That tone was usually followed by that scary black aura. He risked a glance and was captured not for the first time by those verdant eyes. "What theory?"

"We thought she was an evil clone sent by Muraki, or someone else, to kill all of us at the drop of a hat," he said quickly. Hisoka's eyes bulged for a moment and then he sighed and shook his head.

"If you had said that at the beginning, I might've gone along with you."

"So you don't agree?" he asked surprised.

"No. It's hard to describe, but I don't think she's an evil clone or anything like that. She has her own mind, her own memories, and all of this." He gestured to Hamarabi's modest guest room, but probably meant the whole of everything they'd seen today.

"Watari thought of that. He said someone could've hypnotized her—"

Hisoka shook his head. "It's not just her, Tsuzuki. I could feel Hamarabi recognizing her sincerely and…It's just that house. It was filled with memories, really old and faded, but I could make some of them out. She was here twenty years ago, with the man in these photos and a baby."

"And was that baby you?" he asked uncertainly.

The blond sighed. "I don't know. I have to admit, the resemblance is kind of startling. And her husband was supposedly related to my father…to Nagare. I don't know what to think right now," he groaned, resting his head against his palm. He didn't feel like mentioning the dreams he had had before her arrival.

Tsuzuki made a placating gesture with his hands. "Hey, it's okay. Truth be told, Watari and Tatsumi are already convinced she's not lying and that she may be the real thing."

"How nice for them," he replied sourly. He then looked at his partner questioningly. "Just them? What about you?"

He squirmed uncomfortably. "Um…I'll believe when you do." Hisoka sighed, somehow not surprised that his partner was conceding the lead on this matter.

Hamarabi suddenly appeared in the door. "Dinner is almost ready. I'm off to fetch Neina."

"Wait, maybe we should go," Hisoka said.

"Why, because I'm old and feeble?" he asked blandly. "I'll be fine, just stay here and keep an eye on the food."

"No problem! I can do that," Tsuzuki said happily.

"We're going!" Hisoka grabbed his collar and dragged him out of the room. "Just point us in the right direction."

Just as he opened the front door he ran into Neina and knocked her down. "Whoa! Where's the fire?" She got up and dusted herself off.

"Um, we were just going to find you. Dinner is about ready. Why is your hair wet?"

Neina's hand reached up and she blushed. "Oh, I forgot." A sudden rush of wind, hot sultry wind, rose up around here and then dissipated. She was dry as a bone and smiled. "Being a sorceress comes in handy sometimes."

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Hamarabi was an excellent cook. He had made a roasted pig stew that had huge chunks of potato and carrot floating in it, the herb rich broth wafting with a tantalizing odor. There was also a garden salad with home made dressing and a bottle of wine with a delicate bouquet and taste. Neina and Hisoka however took tea with their dinner. Neina evidently abstained from drinking, saying she didn't like the flavor of alcohol. And for desert there was a berry pie, rich with natural juices that made Tsuzuki cry in bliss and Neina stare at him almost in alarm.

After dinner, Hamarabi cleared the plates from the table and deposited them in the modest wooden tub he used to wash them. They were all blissfully full and content, glad that they had agreed to stay this long.

"I'm glad you liked it," he chuckled. "Neina can cook all this for you herself one day."

"But I don't make it near as well as you! This student shall never surpass her master."

"You cook Neina?" Tatsumi asked.

"Oh yeah! I love to cook. I learned a lot of fun recipes on my travels in the Dark Guard." Hisoka looked at the accountant and scientist sitting across from him rather dubiously. This woman was very similar to his partner, so was their cooking alike as well?

"Neina," she looked back to Hamarabi with a smile still on her face. "If it's not too much for you, after everything that's already happened…"

"Yes?" she asked, urging him to continue.

"Could you tell me what happened twenty years ago, when you fled?" The shinigami all perked up at that, their lethargy of full stomachs forgotten.

Neina looked a little torn but finally sighed. She rested her chin on her hands and allowed her mind to travel back to those painful last moments. "On the night of the attack, I was sitting at the window just watching over the valley. I remember I suddenly saw a bunch of lights erupt in the square and wondering what was going on. But before I could call and ask, Hokuto rushed in." Neina's eyes became very distant now, as if she were watching it happen on a movie screen and describing it to a blind person. "He was worried. I knew then that something bad was happening.

Before I could really ask, he told me to get Hisoka and run. I was so confused, but he actually lifted me from my seat and pushed me towards the nursery, all the while fastening one of my black cloaks around me. I stopped and practically yelled that I wouldn't budge until he told me what was going on. That's when he said we were under attack.

I wanted to laugh at the thought, but I knew he was serious. So instead I shouted to him and whoever else might be listening that I wasn't leaving him and would fight as well. But he convinced me the best thing was to get Hisoka to safety. It was probably the shortest argument we've ever had."

Neina paused here, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "I took Hisoka and ran to the elevators. On the way down I projected a strong feeling of calm over him to keep him from crying." Her eyes shifted briefly to the young man in question before settling back on an unidentified spot on the table.

"I remember that part," Hamarabi interrupted. "You came down and told me we were under attack. I said I would go and help defend the town while you ran. But before I left I saw a man…in one of there uniforms chasing you."

She nodded. "Yes. As I ran through the woods, thinking flying would give us away, he found me. I sensed him before I saw him. Wearing a dark red uniform under a black cloak and with a very large sword in his hand. He was…unbalanced, to put it politely. I could tell he was looking forward to killing me _and _Hisoka." She bristled for a moment, recalling that particular part. Tsuzuki bristled too, already hoping who ever this was would get his comeuppance. "I couldn't fight with you in my arms," she directed toward Hisoka, "so I distracted him by trapping him in a web of vines. He started hacking through though, so I turned to make my escape.

He threw a knife at me." The statement left them all a little speechless, but Neina was still speaking anyway. "It hit about here," she put her hand against her side. "Dangerously close to my liver. But he was still closing in, so I didn't have time to heal myself. I just ran. When I past over the teleport restriction I 'jumped' to where I was going.

A friend of ours, Kelton Mafferie, worked at a hospital a few miles away. It was decided if anything should happen, we would meet up there. Kelton was already waiting outside for me. I passed you over to him and told him to take care of you." She sighed again. "I knew that they would follow. I could sense it. I didn't want to put anyone else in danger, so I returned to fight him.

When I did, I was in for a surprise. He had called in reinforcements. The whole of their insurgent, a good 150 men, were waiting for me. He said they each wanted some of the glory of killing the 'Dragon of the West'.

The battle lasted well into the night. They had special chains and weapons that deflected my magic and burned to my touch. And if the chains wound around me, I couldn't use any spells. By the end, my wound was pouring blood and my arm was useless, just a skin sack full of bits of bone and shredded muscle. Sorry, too graphic? Well worse still, my power was too spent to heal myself."

"So…they won?" Tsuzuki whispered.

"I don't remember saying that. I don't lose, ever." She smiled now, leaning back in the chair. In the light from the fire next to her, she looked almost frightening. "I took out all of them. Every single one. So I suppose you could say it was a draw. After the fight I tried to make my way back to the hospital on foot." Neina laughed bitterly. Even then she hadn't actually expected herself to make it there by morning let alone by the time anemia set in. Still, she had pressed on, hoping she would receive a miracle.

"When I finally collapsed against the tree, I did the only thing I could think of. I gave up what I had left in power to the eternal force of nature and in return it sealed me within that tree. You know the rest."

It was deathly quiet in the room, everyone absorbed in their own thoughts of what they'd just seen.

"Well," she said. "Now you know." She stood and exited, walking out into the night to leave them alone and sort it out themselves.

"That was…" Watari trailed off, not knowing how to describe all that he had just seen. It had been frightening, surprising, and touching to be brought into such memories. And all so very saddening.

They sat in silence for a very long time before Tatsumi rose. "I'm sorry if I seem rude, Hamarabi-san, but I think it's about time we leave."

Hamarabi rose and nodded. "Yes, I think we've all had a long, day. Neina doesn't need to hear a good-bye from me, she knows I'll be here if she wants to see me." They nodded and filed out the door. Only when they were a few yards into the forest did they realize a) they had no idea where they were going and b) they had no idea where Neina was.

"Great," Hisoka muttered, somehow not astonished they were lost. "Okay, someone go back and ask that old dragon which way to go."

"Right. Uh, which way _is _Hamarabi's?" Tsuzuki asked. They all pointed in different directions. The reality of the situation set in.

"We're lost!" Watari wailed, flailing about in panic. Tatsumi did his best to calm the man down. For a man of science, he was quite often prone to hysteria. It was true though, they were hopelessly lost in the woods of Avalon.

Ever the rational one (in cases like these) Hisoka sent out his consciousness as far as he could. If they were lucky, either he would seek out Hamarabi or Neina would notice and come rescue…er, lead them home.

Hisoka's back went rigid and his eyes snapped open. "Hisoka, what's wrong?" Tsuzuki asked.

"We're not alone." He looked into the darkness, where a small chuckle was heard.

"Very observant, I thought I would be able to sneak up on you. Silly me." From the forest came a giant dog, about the size of a grizzly bear with tatters of cloth wrapped around him. He lumbered onto the path, a Cheshire grin of spearhead teeth making them all go into a defensive position. "Well now, you're new faces. And you smell delicious. Oh, how long I've waited for some of you to return. That old lizard's harder to catch than you might think."

Tsuzuki, Watari and Hisoka whipped out sutras while Tatsumi raised his shadows. The dog cocked his head at them, the grin never leaving his face. "Well, you do seem to have powers! All the better to fill me up." He lunged at them, causing them to scatter in all directions. Tsuzuki threw his sutra only to watch it fall uselessly to the ground as the monster dodged. When he landed, it spun and shot a black tar like substance at him from its mouth.

"Ugh! What is this?" he yelled. It had stuck him fast to a tree like super glue. No matter how hard he pulled it wouldn't release him. The canine laughed again and raced towards him.

Shadows caught him around the middle and hurled him away from the amethyst eyed man. "Thanks, Tastsumi!" he yelled, tears of relief flowing down his cheeks. The secretary nodded as Watari began to pull at Tsuzuki's arm to free it.

The dog rose and shook his head. As he did, he sent two more shots of tar to pin Tatsumi's hands together and seal Watari's mouth. His attention then turned to the closest shinigami: Hisoka. Hurling his sutra, the dog nimbly dodged again and circled around to fast to follow completely. Tsuzuki was there in an instant, having ripped his coat to get himself free, as the dog lunged at them, mouth wide open.

A jet stream of fire sent the animal flying once again. They all stared, Watari breathing hard after pulling the tar away at last. Where had that come from?

"Ye dead deities! I turn my back for a couple of minutes, and look how much trouble you get into!" Neina walked up the path from the opposite direction they'd been heading, shaking her head with a frown. "Everybody still functional?"

The monster stood, now rising on to legs like a human. "You think that's going to stop me?" he growled. It may not have stopped him, but it was obvious it had hurt rather badly.

"Of course not. Your kind is stubborn. Such are the ways of parasites," she sneered. He raced across with a roar. Neina dodged the blow and smashed her knee into his jaw before flipping back. "Awww, did I hurt your feelings? But that's what you are. A parasite that reanimates a corpse for your new home. I should know. I'm the one that killed him." Raising her arms, the shinigami stared in awe as the rings on both her middle fingers shined and transformed into two deadly swords. "I'd recognize that hideous uniform anywhere. You possessed the corpse of one of those attackers from twenty years ago. Shame on you!"

The wolf-monster launched a blast of tar at her face, but she sliced the air before it. The resulting air current cleaved the tar in mid-air and it fell to the ground. It was Neina's turn to charge, even faster than him. He blocked her sword with his claws, but she pushed through and broke them. The sword lodged itself into his shoulder. He howled and Neina raised one hand to place it on his chest.

"_Darkness, I dispel you from this vessel. Cast this entity of invasion into flames of hell. Purifier, Circle Eighteen!_" Another keening howl was released as black flames erupted all around them. When the flames disappeared, Neina was left standing before a skeleton with tattered rags wrapped around bleach white bones.

Watari was the first to speak, coming over to look at the remains. "Was that…an anima?"

"Yeah. Hate those things, really I do. And I hate this one even more since it used the body of someone I killed." She shook her head, a sad frown coming to her face. "No respect for the dead." Walking off the path, she suddenly upturned a large plot of earth with one swipe of her sword. Striding back, she lifted the skeleton carefully and placed it into the hole.

"You're…giving him a burial?" he asked.

She nodded, positioning the bones and cloth in a slightly neater fashion. "He may have tried to kill me twenty years ago, but I don't think it was necessarily his fault. There was something strange about all those men" she suddenly stopped, her eyes wide and her mouth a thin line. She was staring at the insignia, dirty with grime and god only knew what, stitched to the breast of the red uniform.

"Neina, are you okay? Did something break? Neina?"

She started as if remembering everyone else was there. Climbing out, she made sure no one caught her shoving the scrap of cloth she cut into her pocket. "I'm fine, just lost my train of thought." Another sweeping gesture and the dirt neatly covered the hole. She carved the words 'Unknown Agent' onto the tree over the mound and dusted off her hands. "Well, is everyone else okay?" she asked brightly.

"I think so," Tsuzuki said. Tatsumi looked like he was about to blow a gasket, his suit having been ruined by the blast of tar, but other than that everyone looked fine. Even Hisoka was fine, though still staring at Neina in shock.

"Great. But, then I have a question to ask of you, Tsuzuki-san."

"What?"

The congenial smile suddenly turned to a scowl. "Why are you still holding on to my son?" she practically growled. Tsuzuki looked down just as Hisoka looked up, both having not realized that he still had his arms firmly around the younger male. Hisoka turned cherry red while his partner turned only a little pink and laughed ruefully.

"Oh yeah. Guess I forgot," he laughed, still not relinquishing his partner. "Of course, I'm not complaining!" It had been meant to be a tease, but he failed to realize two things: Hisoka's proximity and Neina's violently reactive nature.

Hisoka hit him in the chin while Neina did a flying kick to the side of the head. "BAKA!!" they yelled in perfect harmony. When the brunette went flying across the path, they barely noticed because they were staring at each other in surprise.

"Um, maybe we should go now," Tatsumi said. "Neina-san, shall we?"

"Are evil clones allowed in Meifu?" she asked dead-pan.

Tatsumi only smiled. "We have all decided, for now anyway, that you are not an evil clone."

"You make it sound like it's something I could catch…" she muttered. But she ended up laughing and wave them to follow. In the meantime, her hand went to her pocket, tracing the stitched insignia she had stolen. 'If someone is doing what I think they're doing, then their playing with fire. And I'll be the one to make sure they get burned.'

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**_Verdict_**: She's not a clone! Sorry if you thought she was or wanted her to be one. My original plan was to make her a clone leading them into a trap set by a secret organization, but then I got some more chapter ideas, and for those I need her to stick around, be trusted, and pretty much be a mom. Maybe after I finish this (if I ever finish this) I'll do an alternate version with my original plan. Or, I'll make it another bonus chapter. We'll see.

From here on it will be mostly vignettes and short stories about life at the ministry with Neina around, as well as adventures with Neina's involvement. One day we will get back to the main story, which is the mystery organizations nefarious scheme. One day…

**If you have a chapter idea, I would love to hear it!** I promise credit will be given where credit is due, just like I promise that not all ideas may be accepted. Remember, this fic is rated T, so nothing that could get me arrested or give my mother a heart attack if she finds it.

**REVIEW, PLEASE!!** It's like a drug, I just want more! And to those of you who have reviewed, keep on doing it!


	8. Do you Know the Muffin Man?

Like I said, every once in a while the chapters will be just short little excerpts about life with Neina around. And this is one of those times!

**Saphira112: **yeah, that was one of my favorite parts to write! Slapstick comedy really makes me laugh and the look on Tsuzuki and Neina's faces in my head made me laugh in the middle of class. Oh, I'm glad you thought the fight scenes were okay! I have trouble with those parts. I see really cool stuff in my head, but I don't know how to say it in words, you know?

Oh, and **laustic**, glad to hear you will be updating soon. And congrats on being in Japan. You're living the American Otaku dream. And yeah, Hisoka's not the kind to trust anyone right away, so I'm trying to stay true to that.

Disclaimer: The only way in which I profit off of this is by making my readers happy. I am making you happy right?

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Part 1

Neina Kurosaki was baking. To be more precise, she was baking muffins. It was a quarter to eight in the morning and she was baking muffins, enough for the entire ministry. And because she didn't know which kind everybody liked, she was baking one batch of blueberry, one batch chocolate chip, one batch banana nut and one batch orange-cranberry. In other words, it was a busy morning.

She had been at the ministry for almost a month now. This was the first time however she had made breakfast. Oh, she found other ways to be useful. She was often the errand girl and ran documents between the others. She made coffee in the morning, though most didn't realize it was her doing. She didn't mind, it gave her something to do after she worked out. Up at six, a jog around the building, training in the dojo for an hour and a half, and then a shower and back to the ministry for coffee by eight. The only difference today was cutting training short to bake muffins. Really, it was her way of thanking all of them for letting her stay here.

At eight precisely she set the muffin mountain down and waited. It was Monday, which meant that they would all come in together, Tatsumi leading the way followed by Hisoka dragging a still lethargic Tsuzuki in the ritualistic attempt to get him to work on time at least one day out of the week. And indeed here they came, just as she predicted. Watari wasn't there, which meant that he must've slept at home for once and would there for not show up until he couldn't ring anymore time out of his alarm clock's snooze button. Either that or he was passed out in his lab and hadn't yet awoken.

The smell of baked goods immediately perked Tsuzuki up. He looked around wildly before spotting the heap on the table. Little hearts appeared above his head and he immediately inu-fied himself and jumped for them.

"Neina, you bought us muffins? Sankyuu!!!" Neina sweat dropped as he began inspecting them, looking for the biggest or fattest or sweetest looking ones to claim for himself. Though his eating habits had disgusted her the first time she was a witness to them, she was becoming more accustomed to the massive amounts of sugar he ingested. That first time she had stared in horror as he devoured what looked like enough cakes and pies for an entire bakery with a frightening grin on his face.

"Is he always like this?" she had asked her son. She liked sweet things as well, but in moderation and not before the real meal. From what she saw, this was his most consistent diet.

"No. Sometimes he gets more," he replied, all too serious. Neina had shuddered and wondered if a shingami could get diabetes from all that sugar.

But back to the present. Tsuzuki was still looking them over and Neina smiled rather wryly at his scrutinizing.

"I didn't buy them, I baked them myself this morning," she said, taking a sip of tea.

Tatsumi and Hisoka immediately looked up for pouring themselves coffee and tea and stared at the muffins as well. "You baked them?" Tatsumi asked.

"Yep, from scratch. Go ahead, they're for everyone. It's just my way of saying thank you." She smiled sweetly, but the men still eyed them warily. Neina was very similar to Tsuzuki at moments, but also similar to Hisoka at others. So the question was: which influenced her cooking?

Deciding not to take any chances, even if it might hurt her feelings, Hisoka pulled his partner away from the potentially deadly muffins. "Sorry, Neina, but we grabbed breakfast on the way here."

"What? No we—" he clamped a hand over his partner's mouth.

Neina frowned, looking disappointed. "Really? But I thought you didn't have time to grab something in the morning before you got here."

"Yeah, well, we were running early," he dodged. Tatsumi nodded, adjusting his glasses.

"Oh…" she looked into her tea, saddened at the news. They all felt a pang of guilt, realizing late she must've put in a lot of work to bake so many muffins of so many different varieties. They sat with her, each drinking from a mug, and Tsuzuki still eyeing the muffins. He really didn't understand why they couldn't eat them…

A sudden commotion down the hall drew their attention. Watari practically flew into the break room, looking frazzled and out of breath. "You see!" he shouted to no one in particular. "This is why I prefer to sleep in my lab! I don't have to worry about being late!" So the alarm clock lost the battle. He clamored for his mug and the pot of coffee, trying to ignore the growling of his stomach as he poured.

However, Neina reached out and grabbed a muffin and tossed it to him. "You'll be more likely to blow something up if you're hungry," she explained. Watari smiled and nodded, leaving skid marks on the linoleum as he speeded away before anyone could warn him.

They all stared at each other, except for Neina who was staring at her tea. She stood and walked back to the tea pot for a refill when Watari skidded back in with half the muffin still in his hand.

"What is this?" he exclaimed. The rest of the men looked nervously at each other, wondering if Watari would actually insult her cooking without knowing it.

"It's a muffin I baked. Blueberry, it looks like," Neina said evenly.

"You baked this?" he asked incredulously. She nodded, eyeing him a little fretfully. "This is…this is…this is amazing! It's like muffin flavored heaven!" he exclaimed.

"You like it?" Neina asked. The others just ogled the scientist, who nodded emphatically. Smiling, she went over to the table and picked up the muffin mountain. "Then here. I've got four flavors of 'heaven' for you. Everyone else has already eaten, evidently, so you can have all four batches." Watari received the platter with a large smile on his face.

"Thanks, Neina! I can just munch on these all day and not leave my lab! And 003 loves banana nut." Neina smiled and waved his thanks aside. Watari was barely out of the room before Tsuzuki leaped up and followed him.

"Wait, Watari! I haven't eaten this morning!"

Neina arched her eyebrows and turned back to the remaining men. Tatsumi coughed and rose. "Yes, well, I could go for something to settle the stomach," he said, adjusting his glasses to hide a small blush. He left the room in the direction of Tsuzuki and Watari.

Only Hisoka and Neina were left, Neina still standing and Hisoka slouched a little to try and hide that his stomach was beginning to gurgle in demand to be filled. He blushed but wouldn't allow himself to get up and following the older men. His pride told him to just sit still and maybe she wouldn't notice. Maybe she would just let it drop and not be angry that they had lied for such an obviously stupid reason.

So he was surprised when a blueberry muffin was set down in front of him with a glass of orange juice next to it. He looked up to see Neina smiling at his shoulder.

"I saved you one. No one should go to work hungry. If you have a mission, you wouldn't be in top form, would you?" she said lightly. Turning, she walked out the door and on the track to the dojo for a little late morning training. Hisoka stared at the muffin, still in a battle of pride and stomach. Stomach eventually won so he unwrapped the confection and bit into it. He had to admit it was good. Sweet, but not unbearably so.

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Part 2

Hisoka was busy at his desk. It was after lunch, but the paper work had piled up so he skipped his break to work through it. Tsuzuki had gone to run a folder back to Watari's lab and still hadn't returned. Not that Hisoka was worried or anything. After all, there was very little trouble for his partner to get into here in their office building. Unless…

But just as that train of thought took off, Tsuzuki came bounding in. "Man, Neina is a great baker! Watari still had a bunch of her muffins, so I snuck a few of them. Don't worry, I don't think he did anything to them. At least, I'm not purple polka dotted goldfish yet."

"That's nice…" he replied evenly. In truth he was annoyed. While Hisoka had worked through lunch Tsuzuki had stuffed himself with muffins in Watari's lab.

So he was startled for a second time that week when another muffin was set before him. This one was orange-cranberry with flowers on the paper around it. "I brought you back one, since you had to work through lunch. If you don't like that kind, I have chocolate chip as well…" It was obvious who that one had been meant for.

Hisoka shook his head and peeled back the paper. "I like this just fine, you can have that one."

"Sankyuu, Hisoka!" he said in delight.

"Shouldn't I be thanking you?" he said before taking a bite.

He shook his head and his eyes suddenly warmed. "You don't have to. You're my partner, I want to look out for you. And because you're more than a partner to me." Hisoka's heart suddenly sped up a few tempos and he felt heat beginning to rise to his face. "You're my friend."

Hisoka blushed and ate his muffin in silence, ignoring and squashing one part of him that was a little disappointed. 'But I want to look out for you too,' he thought. "Because you're my best friend…" he muttered.

"Huh? Did you say something?"

He mentally berated himself for not turning on that verbal filter that was supposed to keep embarrassing comments like that inside. Tsuzuki didn't have one, obviously, but then again he didn't have this damn blush reflex either. "No. Now get back to work, dammit. I don't want to be the only one doing paper work today!"

Tsuzuki immediately took up a pen and a form and began working. He wiped the crumbs off his cheeks onto the paper work, smearing chocolate here and there, but that was really how all his paper work looked. Hisoka just shook his head, letting the corners of his mouth lift for a brief instant. It just wasn't a work day without all this.

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Yeah, that was just weird little vignettes I thought up. **Next time** Saya and Yuma will make an appearance. (grins evilly) Oh, this is gonna be fun!

**If you have an idea for a chapter, please tell me!** I promise credit will be given where credit is do, but I can't guarantee I'll accept all ideas, sorry.

**PLEASE REVIEW!!! **I love hearing from all of you and I love input that makes me a better writer, so don't just read, REVIEW!


	9. Dress Up, Dress Down

A double update! Okay, after the muffin chapter, I decided to go back to what I do best: insanity. And as such I have called in the help of two of the most insane women I know. Yuma and Saya!

Disclaimer: Not mine, is Matsushida-sensei's.

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Hisoka and Tsuzuki were working at their desks. Well, Hisoka was working and Tsuzuki was doing his best not to fall asleep from boredom. He snapped awake however when their door was thrown open and slammed shut suddenly. A very frightened looking Neina stood panting, splayed against the door.

"Hide me! Crazy cotton candy ladies are after me!"

Hisoka traded a glance with his partner before turning. "Neina, we did warn you about drinking in the break room when Watari is in charge."

"I'm serious! So, I'm going to hide in your desk. Tell me when they're gone." She strode over, opened the bottom drawer of his desk (Which was empty) and some how vanished into it and shut it from the inside. He looked at his partner who had eyes at least as wide as him in surprise. Just when you thought the woman couldn't get any stranger.

The door nearly burst off its hinges next as two woman thrust themselves into the room. "HISOKA-CHAN!!!" they screamed. Hisoka jumped up and dove away just in time to avoid being tackle hugged by the two harpies. Who were wearing bright pink mini trench coats…

"Crazy cotton candy ladies…" he muttered, finally understanding.

"Hisoka-chan, when…" they suddenly paused in their tirade.

"Saya, he's still him!" Yuma exclaimed.

"I can see that! But then what did we see? A mirage?"

"What are you talking about?" Tsuzuki asked, attempting to draw their attention away from the younger boy.

"Well, we were coming down the hall from visiting Watari when we saw Hisoka come out of the women's rest room."

"What?" he yelled, turning the color of a ripe tomato. "I never-that wasn't-I—"

"We were shocked, till we realized it really was a woman! So we thought maybe one of Watari's potions finally worked. Either that or you got surgery…"

Hisoka looked like he was about to commit a bloody murder, so Tsuzuki sprinted to the front and peacefully led the women towards the door. "Well, there's a lot you've missed, so I'll explain it on the way to the break room. It's about time I refilled our coffee mugs anyway. Wait here Hisoka, I'll be right back." 'Without them, I promise,' he projected as clearly through his shields as he could. He carted the women out of the room, all the while explaining about Neina and her sudden appearance.

Hisoka waited a few moments, calming his nerves, before he knocked softly on his bottom drawer. "Um…they're gone."

"Are you sure?" came a slightly muffled reply.

"Yeah, Tsuzuki just lead them off."

The drawer suddenly spring open and Neina stepped out as if she hadn't just been cramped in a space ten times too small. "That's a relief. Those crazy women just started chasing me after I exited the bathroom for no apparent reason! I felt like I was in one of those horror movies where the main character is running for her life."

Hisoka nodded. He knew that feeling. "What's that?" he gestured at the folder in her hand.

"Ack! I was on my way to deliver this to Tatsumi when they found me. I gotta go, see you later Hisoka honey!"

"Don't call me that!" he shouted after her as she ran off.

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Hisoka was alone in the office. It was later in the day, after lunch, but Tsuzuki had been called to Tatsumi's office to discuss the many debts he owed for property damage. He was just finishing up some paper work for a reason retrieval case when he suddenly felt an evil presence over his shoulder. Make that two evil presences.

"Hisoka-chan!!!" Yuma and Saya yelled in unison, hugging him around the shoulders. There shields were horrible, so he had to suck in a breath to steady him or else fall out of his chair and leave himself open.

"Get off me!" He threw them off and retreated to the far side of the room. "Dammit, why can't you two leave me alone?!"

"But Hisoka, we brought a gift for you!" Yuma exclaimed.

"How many times do I have to say it, I'm not wearing any of that pink house shit!"

Saya giggled and motioned for him to calm down. "Well, for once it's not that. We got you this." She presented him with a sutra. But it wasn't any spell he recognized, the calligraphy was in a different form than he could understand. He looked at it warily.

"What is it?"

"It's a special sutra we found! If you put it on, it should dampen your empathy in larger crowds."

"Really?" he took a closer look at it, taking it in his hand.

"Yeah! We heard you were still having trouble with that, so we thought you could use this until you can handle them on your own."

He looked from the sutra to the girls and back. "That's…really nice of you," he admitted.

"You sound surprised," Yuma huffed. But her bouncy personality returned instantaneously. "Try it out! Put it on over your heart and see if you can tell what we're feeling or thinking."

Hisoka eyed them but couldn't feel anything threatening or mischievous from either girl. Shrugging, he placed the sutra just above his heart and focused a small amount of his energy into it.

There was a sudden puff of smoke that enveloped him and he knew he'd just fallen for a bad trick. "What the hell did you do?" he screamed, wiping wildly at the smoke. He almost did a pratfall at what he saw. He was wearing an actual Pink House ensemble, one of the many they had attempted to get him to where over the years. His perfect record of dodging them was now over as he tugged vainly at the buttercup yellow sweater covering his thin shoulders. Worse yet, he was in a rose pink dress that had enough frills and lace to satisfy a dozen Disney princess wannabes. And he swore he could feel a garter on one of his legs. 'I'm such an idiot! How did I let this happen?'

"Oh my god, he looks amazing! Take a picture, Saya, quick!" There was a flash and he was temporarily blinded. This was fortunate for both women as he had been about to lay into them like a butcher knife.

"When I get my hands on you two stupid bitc—"

He was interrupted by a knock at the door followed by a quick opening. "Hisoka, Tatsumi wants you to look over these expense reports for your last case and make sure they're…acc…urate…" Neina dropped the file that was in her hands and stared, mouth agape, at the figure of her son in a dress that was before her. Hisoka's cheeks ignited in a flash of crimson, which resulted in another picture being taken. But Neina didn't notice, she was still staring, for almost a full minute.

Finally she stepped forward, in two quick strides, and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Hisoka honey, is there something you'd like to tell me?" she asked calmly. Hisoka's didn't think he could blush anymore if he tried, but he did.

"It-it's not me! It's them! I was tricked!" he yelled.

Neina turned and faced the two girls, who were looking a little shamefaced. "You really tricked him into this?" they nodded and Neina sighed. "Undo it. Now." The tone in her voice left no room for argument.

Yuma pouted but pulled the sutra off the boy's chest. Another puff of smoke and he was dressed back in his blue sweatshirt and jeans and comfy pair of tennis shoes. "We just wanted to dress him up."

"Regardless, doing so against someone's will isn't very nice. If he doesn't want to dress like this, he shouldn't have to. Unless he lost a bet," she added under her breath.

Yuma and Saya both nodded. "We're sorry, Hisoka," they said in unison.

"Uh…its okay, I guess." They smiled and left the room quickly, their heels clicking on the way out. He sighed and dropped back into his chair. "Those two are gonna be the death of me," he mumbled.

"Funny, I thought shinigami were already dead," Neina smirked. He lifted one eye open and glared at her.

"Thanks," he said begrudgingly.

"No problem. But I don't think they're the kinds who give up that easily. You had better be careful. I may not be around next time." He snorted and scooped the folder she had dropped off the floor.

"I don't remember asking you to help me," he grumbled.

Neina sighed again and leaned against his desk. "I know. But as your mother, I want to help. You know," she said, suddenly chuckling a little, "I'm trying not to be one of those moms who are all 'you'll always be my wittle baby'." Hisoka shuddered at the thought. "I promised myself if I became a mother one day I wouldn't do that. I would let my child be whoever they wanted. But I missed watching you grow up, so to me you still are my baby. I'm trying to remind myself you're twenty-it's really hard considering the whole eternal youth thing. You're old enough to make your own decisions. That's what I was going to say if it ended up that dresses were like your hobby or something," she laughed weakly, mostly from the glare that comment got her.

"My point is, I want to be supportive of your choices no matter what they are but I want to protect you as well. It will be kind of conflicting sometimes, I realize that. So bear with me, huh?" she smiled wanly.

He frowned and turned away from her in his chair. "Whatever…" he muttered. Neina smiled and pushed away from the desk to leave. "Would you really try to support my choices?" She paused and smiled even more.

"Yep. Even cross dressing. But if that had ended up being a hobby, I was going to blame your fashion sense on your father. I wouldn't be caught dead in that outfit," she laughed and walked out the door with the hope his day would go a little smoother now.

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The next day at lunch Hisoka and Tsuzuki were walking back from they're trip to get take out from Earth when they spotted Yuma and Saya looking around for something. Hisoka was instantly on his guard. "What the hell are you two doing here?"

Yuma smiled and waved to them merrily. "Ease up, Hisoka-chan! We have a new doll to play with." He arched his eyebrows but didn't need to ask as Neina rounded the corner. "NEINA-CHAN!!!"

She tensed and turned her head in horror. "Not again! Didn't I just lose you?" She panicked and took off down the hall, Yuma close behind.

"You see," Saya said, "We were really impressed by how pretty your mom his and how feisty she is too. So we decided to make her our new pet project. After that, our goal is to get you both into matching outfits so we can have a photo-album! Oh!" she suddenly leaned in as if sharing a secret. "We left you some copies of the photos on your desk. They really are very cute, you should look at them. Maybe give one to a special someone…" her eyes shifted to Tsuzuki. Hisoka blushed and Saya laughed before taking off in the direction the hunt had gone.

"What was that about?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Nothing," he snapped. "Lets go to the break room and eat." He marched off, his partner in tow. Down the hall he saw Neina sprinting just ahead of the two women down one of the corridors. 'Better her than me,' he decided. After all, he would be busy explaining to Tatsumi why their waste paper basket was on fire later in the afternoon.

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Onother Crazy oneshot chapter. Well, that's it for the vignettes, unless I get some **suggestions**. Or maybe you don't like the vignettes? Just tell me if that's the case, cause I got plenty of main story lines to work on.

**Next time** begins a new story that can be described in one word: **Muraki**.


	10. Jack the Ripper, jr

Okay, thus begins my next story arch, this one involving Muraki. I don't know how well I will write for him, evil psycho-bastard not being my forte, but here we go.

**laustic: **I'm glad you like the vignettes. I wasn't sure how well they would go over, especially that muffin one.

Disclaimer: Yami no Matsuei is the property of…not me.

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Neina smiled as she towed Tsuzuki, Hisoka and Watari down the sidewalk. Tatsumi had stayed back at the ministry with a claim that he had too much paperwork to finish. (In reality he was enjoying he relative quiet of them being gone.)

"You know, you guys didn't need to come with me. I'm a big girl; I can take care of myself." Neina adjusted one of her rings meaningfully.

"Well, we just thought you could use the company," Tsuzuki said.

"Yeah, and I want to meet this friend of yours, Doctor…"

"Mafferie. Kelton Mafferie. He's from England. We met him on a job a long time ago. He kind of became the Dark Guard's personnel physician even though he was still in med school. Around the time of the attacks he was a resident in a hospital near the border. It was agreed that if anything should happen we'd all meet there so Kelton could look us over."

They turned the corner and began to ascend the high incline of the hospital steps. By the top Neina was still fresh and bouncy as a daisy, but the others were out of breath.

"Whose idea was it to put this thing on such a high incline?" Tsuzuki asked as he put his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "And why aren't you breathless too?" he asked indignantly of the woman.

"Easy. I cheated." She grinned and pushed of the ground with the balls of her feet to hover for a few seconds. "Hardly seems like anything when you do it like this. Use your head, inu-baka." She landed with a small thud. "But, I don't mind doing it the normal way either. I have pretty good endurance. I just didn't feel like it. Now come on, I'm dying to see the look on Kelton's face when he sees me." She bounded through the sliding doors with a grumbling Tsuzuki and the others at her back.

The inside was like any typical hospital. The walls were a pale blue with a white trim, a white tiled floor made to look like marble, and the hum of florescent lights in the background. People were sitting in chairs waiting to hear their name called and a television in the corner was playing a local new channel with the volume down low.

Neina smiled pleasantly as she approached the receptionist, a bored looking girl in her late teens or early twenties. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Dr. Mafferie," she said sweetly.

The girl slapped a clipboard onto the counter sharply without even looking up. "Fill these out with your insurance information and symptoms and we'll let you see the first available physician in order of your arrival. Thank you." Each opening of her mouth was punctuated with a crack of her gum which she chewed like a cow chewed cud.

The blonde's eye twitched but she didn't lose her smile. "No, you misunderstand. I'm not a—"

"Please, ma'am, we cannot treat you without proper reference information. If you do not comply with hospital protocol, I will be forced to call security."

"But—"

"But nothing. The sooner you complete the forms, the sooner you can see _a_ doctor."

Neina did lose her smile now and looked decidedly annoyed. Before she could start telling the woman off however, Watari stepped in between the two of them.

"I suppose I should have introduced myself first," he said charmingly. The receptionist looked up at the new voice and her eyes got round at the handsome man that now addressed her. "I'm Dr. Watari. These are my colleagues, Doctors Kurosaki and Tsuzuki and our intern, Mr. Kurosaki. We are here to have an emergency conference with Dr. Kelton Mafferie regarding research we have done into…"

"The effects of certain pain inhibitors on cells of the nervous system. He asked us to bring our research over as soon as we discovered anything of importance," Neina supplied, picking up on the game quickly.

She eyed them all, a little suspicious. Neina smiled and held out her hand. "I'm sorry, I think we got off on the wrong foot." The receptionist took her hand and her eyes suddenly clouded over. "I really don't want you to get into trouble for obstructing research, so if you could just point us to Mafferie's room, we'll go on with our day."

She smiled dreamily as Neina let go of her hand. "I'm sorry, but Dr. Mafferie is at a conference right now."

"Well, that's no problem. We'll talk when he gets back. When should that be."

"Next week. The conference is in London." Neina's face faulted, along with the others.

"London?!"

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"So you're really going?" Hisoka asked. He watched Neina as she packed up all the clothes she had bought by pawning off little trinkets from the jewelry room of their house in Avalon into her new suitcase. "You're going all the way to London, instead of waiting."

"Why not? I haven't been in years and it will be even more of a surprise if I show up there instead of the hospital here." She laid a long sage green trench coat into the suitcase, one she bought after remembering that London was chilly this time of year and was wet most of the year anyway.

Hisoka nodded. "Yeah, I suppose. Remember what everyone asked for, or you'll get an earful when you come back." Neina looked him up and down with a frown.

"You didn't ask me for anything," she pointed out.

He shrugged, trying his best to look indifferent. "I don't really know what's there besides the usual. I've never traveled out of Japan, unless you count a cruise one time." He suppressed a shudder. Personally, that didn't count.

Neina looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling. "Then you're coming with me."

Hisoka almost slid the rest of the way down the wall he was leaning on. "Wh-what?"

"Go home and pack. I'll talk to Konohe and get you out of work for a few days. It's my belief that everyone should visit a European city at least once, and London is a great place to start." She suddenly sobered and fiddled with the scarf in her hands. "That is if you want to come."

Hisoka thought about it for a moment. Before his death, when most of his time was spent locked up, he had dreamed of visiting the places he read about. And London was one of the most prominent in his memories, from books like The Case Files of Sherlock Holmes to Pride and Prejudice. That last one had been harder to understand, marriage and love and all that, but England had still sounded wonderfully open and free compared to his cell.

"I…suppose a few days wouldn't hurt…" he said faintly. Neina's face brightened and inside she jumped for joy that she would get to spend sometime with Hisoka, just him and her.

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Neina stretched her back like a cat, finding relief in the cracking and popping joints. Hisoka followed suit, groaning as his back finally straightened from the half-day he had spent on a plane. They hadn't transported since they didn't have a positive destination and it was likely "that I would dump us into the Thames river or worse if I tried to do it otherwise", she had said. The plane ride hadn't been so bad, aside from a mild case of airsickness Hisoka experienced half-way through. You would have thought flying as a shinigami would prepare someone for that, but life is full of surprises. And then there was…

"Man, that was a long plane ride! I can't remember ever sitting down that long," Tsuzuki whined.

Neina glared at him but spoke to her son. "Tell me again how it is he came with us?" she asked him.

"He overheard us and begged me to come as well. Just be thankful Tatsumi wouldn't let Watari or himself have vacation time, or the flight would've seemed eons longer." She grimaced. Even though she liked the men, a 12 hour plane ride with all of them wasn't high on her list of things to do before she died.

"If Tatsumi wouldn't let _himself_ have vacation time, how did inu-baka get it?"

Hisoka let a wry smile escape him. "Tsuzuki is his one known weakness."

"Oh really…" Neina smiled rather evilly. 'I'm gonna have to remember that.'

"Hey, what are you guys whispering about?" Tsuzuki bounded over.

"Nothing. Let's get our luggage and get to the hotel before jet-lag sets in."

"Okay. Uh, what's jet-lag?"

Neina smiled evilly again. "You'll see," she said mysteriously.

Their luggage was late being put on the carousel so while Hisoka and Tsuzuki sat and waited Neina went and got a paper from the gifts shop. She skimmed through it as she walked, effortlessly weaving around tourists and business, flight attendants and the occasional Hare Krishna. When she returned she plunked her self down in the seat between them.

"Geez! How much happened in the twenty years I was gone?" she shook her head as she turned the page. Hisoka noticed her face grimaced in disgust at something she read.

"What? Something wrong?"

She sighed and held the paper a little further away so they could see. "We picked a marvelous time to come. It seems murder has made it's return into English society in the last few weeks." Hisoka skimmed the words while Tsuzuki blanched at the pictures of decimated young woman laying half out of coroner's sheets. "Evidently someone has been killing young woman of, ahem, ill repute all around the city, especially in the White Chapel district. And because of all this, they're calling him the "New Jack the Ripper." As if he's a celebrity or something." She shook her head and folded the paper under her arm. "Damn psychos," she muttered. The flashing light above the carousel and a loud pulsing buzz hailed the arrival of their bags.

After they got their luggage they hailed a taxi. Or at least Tsuzuki and Hisoka tried to hail a taxi, and without much success. It wasn't until Neina put her fingers to her lips and blew a shrill whistle that a cab stopped right before them.

"Works every time." Their hotel was downtown, just out of the way of Chelsea. It was a respectable three star a bit like the English version of a Ramada Inn. Neina had taken the liberty of reserving two rooms, one for her and one for them. "You guys are used to sharing a room, right? It's a double bed, and there's a door that connects 'em."

"That's fine. I wouldn't expect you to want to put up with Tsuzuki's snoring anyway."

"I don't snore!" Neina chuckled at the outraged look on his face before opening the door to her room. She set her luggage down and then opened the door connecting the rooms.

Hisoka was lying on the bed he had claimed, curled on his side to catch a few moments of precious sleep. Tsuzuki however was sitting cross legged on his bed with a map folded out before him and a guide book in his hand.

"What're you doing?" Tsuzuki looked up and smiled.

"I'm looking up all the best bakeries and sweet shops to visit! But this book is really hard to read."

Neina tilted her head and sweat dropped. "Might help if you didn't have the map upside down." Tsuzuki looked at the map and flushed a little, turning it around with his free hand.

"I knew that…"

Sighing, Neina retreated back into her room and returned a moment later with two necklaces dangling from her hand. "Here. And give this one to Hisoka."

He caught them as she tossed them at his bed. "What are they?" He examined them but they just looked like flat gold disks on the end of silver chains.

"Translator pendants. Hisoka told me you have trouble with English, so I whipped them out of storage back home. And as much as I was looking forward to seeing you flounder the first day…" he pouted and Neina smirked. "I decided to be merciful and give them to you now. When you wear it, you'll be able to speak, understand and read English."

"Wow! Sankyu!" Neina smiled. Considering that was the only phrase he knew in English, it probably was best she gave him that early. "But what about you?"

She blinked before she realized what he was asking. "I'm multi-lingual, I don't need one. My mother spoke English and taught it to me as a child." Tsuzuki nodded and put the pendant over his neck.

"Ha! Now I be blingin'."

"Huh?"

"I thought you were multi-lingual," Tsuzuki smiled. It did feel different, his lips moving in different patterns than he was used to, and yet still making sense.

"Whatever. I'm going to find Kelton now."

"But we just got here," he said, scanning through his now legible guide book and mark in red areas to visit on his map.

"Yeah, but I want to get this over with. I have a feeling this first meeting is going to be awkward, what with me being gone for twenty years and not aging a day. I'm also going to try and get him to come to dinner, that's when we can all sit down and talk." She pulled her green trench coat on again and put her braid up into a coiled bun. "In the meantime, Hisoka has the right idea. You should conserve your strength for the jet-lag."

"Okay, but what _is_ jet-lag?"

Neina smiled as she walked out the door. "You'll know it when you get it."

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The conference hall was large. Doctors were a bound and Neina swore she saw women lurking in the bushes on the hunt for prospective husbands. She sighed shaking her head. 'Knew this wouldn't be easy.'

She walked up to the information desk, hoping that she was better than the hospital receptionist from last time.

"Excuse me, I'm a colleague of Dr. Kelton P. Mafferie, of Japan, and I was wondering if you could possibly direct me to where he would most likely be or page him for me. It's rather urgent," she said in a clear precise tone with no trace of a foreign accent.

The woman smiled but it looked tight, rather distrusting. "Alright, I'll just need to see some identification." Neina cursed mentally but never let her smile drop. She didn't have any form of identification that would be accepted here, and that included her spell of the month club card.

"Oh, what a lovely ring!" she grasped the woman's hand before the woman could protest. Immediately she lowered her shields and sent a wave of calming emotion into her, the same technique she had used on the receptionist before, making her slowly drop her guard. "Now, about Dr. Mafferie…"

She pointed vaguely up with a dreamy smile on her face. "He set up a temporary office on the third floor. Room C12."

"Thank you. Have a nice day," Neina let go, relinquishing the link between her and the woman but allowing her to ride out the pleasurable calm on her own. Her shields were thrown back up instantaneously, blocking out any emotion but her own.

On the third floor she took a deep breath and rapped on the door of C12. "Who is it?" Neina let out the breath, recognizing the voice even now. She opened the door and smiled, recognizing also the curve of those broad shoulder and mess of hair, once died bright red but subdued to a dull grey. It brought back the realization that time had passed while she was gone, but she shook the thought away and marched ahead.

"I said who is it?" he turned impatiently but stopped, mouth agape and brown eyes wide when he saw her.

"Hey Kelton," she said quietly.

He rose from his chair, stumbling once as he walked toward her with disbelieving eyes. "…Neina?" She nodded and he suddenly embraced her in a large bear hug. "Neina! Oh my god, Neina!" He swung her slightly and they both laughed. Setting her back down, he pushed her back to look at her. "My god…you haven't aged a bit. Literally!" She laughed, loud and riotous.

"It's not my fault! Well, not entirely. Time doesn't really apply where I've been."

"And where is that?"

"Sit down, this is gonna be a while."

After she had told of everything that had happened, from the night she came to him with baby Hisoka, to being sealing in the tree, to being freed to now. Kelton stared in silence as he absorbed all of it before shaking his head.

"Damn. I didn't realize so much happened…"

Neina frowned before her gaze hardened. "Kelton, why was Hisoka with _them_. You know Runa was his legal guardian after us…Unless she…" Neina couldn't finish that last thought but Kelton was already shaking his head again.

"No, Runa made it out. She was already to take care of him, but the Kurosaki's found out about him. Evidently Nagare and Rui had given up on having children of their own and claimed Hisoka on rights of blood relation. We tried to contest it in court, but they won in the end." He looked down, saddened at the memory. "They denied us the right to visit him as well. We never saw him again."

Neina's gaze softened. She decided not to tell him about the abuse of the Kurosaki's and lessen the guilt he obviously still felt. "It's…not so bad. He's grown into a great young man."

"But you said he was a Guardian of Death. Doesn't that mean…?"

She nodded but still smiled gently. "Yes, he died a few years ago evidently. But I've gotten used to the idea. And gods, he reminds me so much of myself it's frightening sometimes. And other times he reminds me so much of Hokuto…I almost cry." She looked Kelton in the eyes again. "Have…you heard anything from him?"

Kelton's eyes were distant for a moment before he sighed. "No. Not since the attack." She nodded and did her best to appear calm and stable.

"Anyway, you're invited to dinner. And by invited, I mean come or you'll _be_ dinner for some nasty beasty. Understood?"

"Crystal clear. Is…he going to be there?" Kelton looked worried but Neina smiled.

"You'll have to face my son eventually, Kelton. Don't worry, I explain what happened. I doubt he'll blame you too much."

"Oh, thanks!" Neina laughed and they stood.

"I need to get back and make sure they're not running up room service. That Tsuzuki consumes enough sugar to sweeten the Boston Tea Party." He nodded and opened the door for her.

No sooner had Neina journeyed into the hall she ended up running smack dab into someone. She ended up on her butt, rubbing her nose where it connected with a pectoral cavity.

"So sorry. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going." A hand entered her line of vision and she took it gratefully.

"Thank you, I—" She forgot the words she was about to say. She forgot Kelton. She forgot where she was and why. She forgot all semblance of herself. The only the she remembered was a face framed by red moonlight that overlapped the now.

"Ah, Sakuya, this is Kazutaka Muraki, a fellow doctor from Japan. Muraki-san, this is my friend, Sakuya C. Ku—"

"Haguro. My name is Sakuya C. Haguro," she shook the hand she now realized she still held and released it with as much ease as she could. "It's nice to meet you, Dr. Muraki."

Muraki smiled amiably and nodded. "You as well. But I must be going. Good day Haguro-san, Mafferie-san." He nodded to each of them and swept past them down the hall. Kelton waited until he was a good distance away before turning to the blond.

"Any particular reason you told him your maiden name instead of your married?"

Neina was silent for a long moment, contemplating what she should and shouldn't tell him. "Don't trust that man, Kelton," she finally advised. "Especially with your life."

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And thus I set the stage! **Next time**, Muraki will be evil and the Team Meifu will have to stop him!

Still taking **Suggestions** for short story chapters or even story archs.

**REVIEW!!!!** Feed my ego! Or, in the words of Watari (from Jazi's great fanfiction _Veins of Ice_) "Stroke my ego! Strokey Strokey!!"


	11. Dinner, Murder, and an Invitation

Okay, more Muraki in this chapter, for those of you who can stand him. Just a little more, but I'm trying to ease myself off the deep end of his…Muraki-ness. Sorry, **laustic, **it probably won't be really interesting till next time.

Disclaimer: Maybe it is mine. (sound of a gun clicking behind my head) Then again, maybe not.

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Neina stood at the curb of the street outside of the meeting hall, waiting to hail a cab. She was still tense from seeing him, unconsciously rubbing her hand against her pants leg when she thought about him.

'Muraki is here. I've met him now, the one who…' she took a deep breath of the chilly London air to steady herself. She wanted to hit something, to feel it crack beneath her knuckles and relieve the stress they felt right now.

"Having a trouble getting a cab to stop?" She jumped a little and looked up. Muraki was standing right next to her, smiling with narrowed eyes behind his glasses. She stopped breathing for a second and he chuckled. "Forgive me, Miss Haguro. I didn't mean to startle you. I was merely curious how you knew my colleague, Dr. Mafferie. You seem too young to be his girlfriend."

Neina breathed again, attempting to keep it slow and calm. "Uh, yes. I mean, no, he was my doctor a few years ago and always a good friend."

He nodded and looked her over, that smile never leaving his face. God, she wanted to swipe it off with a good punch. "I see. You seem very familiar. Have we met before now?" She ground her teeth but did her best to smile.

"No, I don't think so, Doctor. I'm sure I would remember you."

His smile grew but his eyes narrowed even more. "Yes, I'm sure I would remember you as well. Good afternoon, Miss Haguro." He bowed slightly and abruptly turned and left.

Neina watched him go down the street away from her and the convention hall. Her foot took a small step in the same direction before she stopped herself. '…if you were the one to fight his battle, he probably wouldn't forgive you,' Tsuzuki's words rang in her head.

'It's his fight…he's old enough to fight his own battles…I'll just go back to the hotel and get ready for dinner tonight. Yeah, that's what I'll do.' She turned and headed around the corner, hoping she could find a taxi there or a subway entrance.

"Oh who the hell am I kidding?" she growled, coming back around the corner and quietly marching in the direction Muraki went. She could feel residual traces of his consciousness, though her shields were still perfectly erected to block out any thoughts or emotions. But even when she opened them the tiniest bit, she didn't get any new information. 'He's good,' she thought begrudgingly as she followed the trail around a corner. And then she stopped, mainly because the trail stopped, just abruptly in the middle of the alleyway. "Damn! Where did he go?"

Neina never noticed the shadowed figure perched on the roof above like a vulture in white, smiling at the newest player in his game.

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Tsuzuki looked up as the door connecting their and Neina's room suddenly opened. "Hey, I'm back. Sorry if it took a while but WHAT THE BLOODY HELL?!" The last was directed at the heaps and piles of paper bags all over the room, many smelling faintly of sugar or spices of some sort.

"Heh, hi Neina, welcome back. I did a little shopping while you were gone," he grinned sheepishly at her incredulous stare.

"Where, Candyland?" She toed one of the bags out of the way so she could move further into the room. "And didn't I tell you to rest? Your jet-lag's gonna be a bitch later."

"I'll be fine! I've survived dozens of hangovers and demon attacks, so this jet-lag thing won't be so bad."

Neina snorted but then looked troubled. "Where's Hisoka?"

"He just got in the shower," he pointed towards a door at the other end of the room, where the sound of running water could faintly be heard.

"Good, I need to talk to you alone." She picked her way carefully through the maze of bags and sat down on the bed next to him. "Give me your hand."

"Huh?!" Tsuzuki flushed a little. "Neina, you're a nice woman, but—" Tsuzuki reeled after she punched him swiftly in the eye.

"Get over yourself! I still consider myself blissfully married, you damn egoist. I just want to shield our conversation from him," she jerked her head in the direction of the bathroom. Tsuzuki blinked, the black eye already healing, and took her hand. He felt as if he was suddenly covered in heavy but not uncomfortable over coat.

He looked at Neina, who was staring off into space collecting her thoughts, and marveled yet again how she resembled his partner. 'I wonder if this is how his hand feels,' he thought. 'Long fingers that trap you willingly. Cool and delicate…like porcelain. But slowly warming in my touch. Ack! What am I thinking, she can probably hear me!' He looked up, ready to see the glaring daggers of an offended mother, only to see her still staring at nothing.

Finally she took a deep breath and looked him in the eyes. "Muraki is here."

It took a moment to register the words. "What?" he still asked, hoping he had registered them wrong.

"Muraki is here. I saw him today. I spoke with him," he felt her hand tighten like a vice. "He's attending the same conference as Kelton. I'd forgotten that you said he was a doctor."

There was silence for a moment. "What exactly happened?" he asked seriously. If it had been any other moment she would've been surprised that he could be serious, but she knew this wasn't the time.

"I bumped into him, literally, walking out of Kelton's temporary office. He offered me hand up…" she rubbed her free hand furiously against her pant leg until Tsuzuki stilled it with his in the fear she would rub off her skin. "I didn't realize who it was till I was standing again."

"How did you recognize him? You'd never met till then."

"Remember when I was pulled into Hisoka's mind, after that dragon attacked?" He nodded. "Well, saw a few choice memories in there. Including…" her throat constricted and it was obvious she felt violently ill. Tsuzuki rubbed her back sympathetically. It must've been hard, watching your own son raped by a mad doctor. "I don't think I can forget that face, ever."

"Did you do anything?" he asked after a pause.

She laughed bitterly. "Yeah, I made small talk. And I tried to follow him, but he got away somehow. Gods, but I wanted to dig into him with my sword. Right there, in front of Kelton and hundreds of other people, just gut him like a fish." She laughed again and ran her hand up through her banes. "But I remembered what you said. That it' Hisoka's fight and I shouldn't fight for him.

"I understand that better than you might think, Tsuzuki. I took revenge for my parents and my teacher on the organization who ordered them killed. I didn't do it alone, but neither did anyone fight my battles for me. So I understand what he wants. But I also don't want him to be in danger! I want to protect him. He's my only…" She trailed off sadly and bent her head.

"What should we do?" he asked, trying to think.

She was silent for a moment. "What would Hisoka do?"

"Huh?"

"Hisoka. What would he do if he knew Muraki was here? You know him better than I do," she added quietly.

Tsuzuki thought and then grimaced. "Probably go looking for him."

"Then we do nothing."

"Nothing?" he asked in amazement.

"Yes, nothing." She looked him in the eyes. "He doesn't know I know you two. He had no reason to follow me. And I don't want them meeting, not if it will result in a fight. He has the advantage right now, since I'm not used to all the changes the city has made and neither one of you has ever been here. He's had weeks to learn the mapping and could win thanks to that advantage."

Tsuzuki nodded, knowing she made sense. "So why tell me? Why not just keep it to yourself?"

She laughed again, this time half amused half rueful. "I need you to keep an eye me and make sure I keep my own advice!" She kept laughing until it sounded almost manic. "Gods…I wanted to kill him. Just kill him so none of us would ever think of him again. He was so close…right next to me….didn't even know who I was or how much I hated him for everything he did. I could've just…" She sighed and shook her head, shaking away her temporary dementia as well. "Well, C'est la gar! Or such is war," she explained to his perplexed face.

He nodded, smiling his best reassuring smile to ease her anxiety. She smiled back, just as the bathroom door opened and Hisoka stepped out in a fresh set of clothes. He was toweling his hair and, looking up to see them holding hands, arched his eyebrows. They looked at each other before Neina flipped his hand over and pretended to examine it.

"And this is your head line, which denotes knowledge and wisdom. I'm not surprised it's so short, to tell the truth…"

"Hey!" he pulled his hand back with growl and Neina grinned impishly.

(**I pulled that palm thing out of thin air, i really don't know anything about it**)

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Hisoka finished knotting his tie, pulling trying to keep from strangling himself. It wasn't like his windpipe wouldn't heal, but he did want to be remotely comfortable during dinner with Neina and this man, Dr. Mafferie. And Tsuzuki's snoring wasn't helping his nerves right then.

"Baka! Now's not the time to sleep! Finish getting ready." He grasped the end of the blanket and pulled up as hard as he could. Tsuzuki rolled and fell with a thump the floor between their beds.

"Owwwww….Hisoka, that hurt…" he whined from the other side. Hisoka growled low in his throat at his partner's antics.

"He's right, Tsuzuki. Finish getting ready or we'll be late for dinner." Hisoka turned his head and felt his jaw drop involuntarily. Neina stood in the doorway between their rooms, a burgundy dress hugging her curves beautifully. A black wrap came around her shoulders and was clasped in the front by a large ruby broach in gold working. Her hair was pinned up so that it looked shorter, but wisps still trailed off to the side. And her lips were stained a deep red, almost as deep as her dress.

"Okay, okay, I'm just so tired all of a sudden…Whoa! Neina, you look great!"

She smirked and chuckled a little. "Thanks. Now hurry it up and I might treat you to a dessert." Tsuzuki was suddenly ready and at the door, faster than either blond could follow.

"What're we waiting for? Let's go!" He was out the door and bounding down the hallway before he even finished.

"I just dug my wallet's own grave, didn't I?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm afraid you did." She laughed and looked him up and down.

"My, my! I'm not the only one who looks good tonight." Hisoka blushed and Neina just smiled as she led the way out.

Outside they made their way down the street side by side. They received many stares from both sexes, men leering at Neina and woman (sometimes the other men, it is London after all) blushing or smiling at the two men at her sides. Neina just kept smiling while Hisoka blushed or tried not to notice. Tsuzuki was oblivious to it all.

"Okay, I we just need to cross the street up ahead and it's a straight shot to the restaurant", Neina said.

"Great! I'm tired again all of a sudden…" Tsuzuki yawned and Neina rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you had taken a nap after our arrival, you wouldn't be so tired. Jet-lag is when you're not used to the change in time-zones so your body wants to sleep on your home's schedule."

"What?! Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Don't yell, Tsuzuki, people are staring." 'At least more than before,' Hisoka added mentally. It was getting rather uncomfortable for him.

Neina glared at the taller man. "I figured _other_ issues were more pressing."

"Yeah right, you just wanted to see me get all tired miserable!"

"No, that was just a bonus," she laughed at Tsuzuki's indignant face and walked a little farther ahead of them. Her mind went back to her meeting with Muraki. Was he really here on such an innocent case as a medical conference? From what she had heard of him, that wasn't his style. Then why…

"Neina, get out of the street! The light's green!" Hisoka yelled. She looked up in shock to realize she had walked out into the middle of the street, with a fast sports car coming at her like shot in the dark. Neina turned and dove for the sidewalk, grasping Tsuzuki and Hisoka's outstretched hands so that they pulled her to safety.

"Are you okay, Neina?" they both asked. She was panting and looked a little frazzled as the car zoomed passed not a second later.

"Y-yeah. I'm not usually that unaware … Shit, that was close. I was almost a goner!"

"Why? Couldn't you just heal yourself if you got hurt?"

"Not if I die first!" They both tilted their heads and Neina grimaced. "I'm not a shinigami, geniuses! My healing isn't natural, it doesn't just _happen_. I have to consciously activate it with a spell. And if I'm unconscious or dead…" They both paled. "Yeah. It's kind of like drowning. If I'm knocked out in the water, I can't swim to save myself, you see. Trust me, I've had plenty of near death experiences to compare to."

They nodded and waited for the light to change this time before crossing the street. Kelton was waiting for them outside the restaurant dressed in a nice suit and tie. He smiled when he saw them. Neina smiled and jogged to meet him. She slowed however when a woman stepped out from behind Kelton. She was a middle aged woman but lovely, with dark brown hair swept up into a bun with thin braids trailing from it. Her skin had an olive tone to it but her eyes showed obvious Japanese descent. Her dress was black and strapless with an onyx choker around her neck.

Neina's eyes were huge when the men caught up. "Runa…Haruna-chan!!!" Neina yelled and propelled herself forward to hug the woman around the shoulders. "Ye dead gods, Haruna, it's you!!"

The woman laughed and hugged her friend back. "Hello, Neina-chan! It's so good to see you too." Neina stepped back and brushed at the tears that clung to her lashes.

"Meh, I'm such a crybaby lately! Oh!" she turned and pulled Hisoka and Tsuzuki forward. "Boys, this is the very dashing Kelton and _this_ is my best friend, Haruna Aopsocopolis." The both face faulted and everyone laughed.

"Just call me Runa. It's a hell of a lot easier than trying to pronounce Greek."

"This is Tsuzuki Asato," Neina continued. "And this is Hisoka," she said proudly. Runa looked stunned for a moment before smiling.

"Gods, he looks just like both of you, if that makes any sense." Runa shook his hand and then Tsuzuki's.

"Well," Kelton said. "I'm sorry to ruin the mood, but I'm starving. May we go in and eat?"

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"No way!" Tsuzuki laughed. Dinner had gone by relatively quickly, surprising for such a ritzy establishment, and they were now enjoying some after dinner conversation. Mostly about Neina's past and consequently the pasts of Haruna and Kelton. "Was your hair really bright red twenty years ago?"

Kelton smiled rather proudly. "Yep. Dyed it every month because I loved the color so much. But I had to stop a few years ago. People give forty-years-olds strange looks when they walk around with bright red hair."

"People gave you strange looks when you were in your twenties," Runa and Neina said together. They laughed and both had to marvel at the picture they made. Neina seemed more alive somehow with her old friends at her side.

Dessert was brought out, much to Tsuzuki's delight. The entire table had ordered a rich chocolate cake to share. That is if they got any away from the amethyst eyed man.

"So, what was the Dark Guard like?" Hisoka asked. He was curious if it was anything like the bureau.

"Pure madness," they all replied matter-of-factly. Sounding like it already.

"Remember that time Newt created a space-time paradox in the basement?"

"Do I! Attila the Hun was not a happy camper." Neina laughed at the shinigamis' expressions, even though she was entirely serious.

"Newt?"

"Our resident Watari," Neina explained. "We had a Tatsumi too! But we called him Schroeder. But praise the gods, we did not have a Yuma or a Saya!" Sounded like heaven now.

"What about us?" Tsuzuki asked.

Neina tilted her head in consideration. "We had a dog…" she said innocently.

"Hey!" both Kelton and Tsuzuki said indignantly. Everyone was momentarily confused, save for the blond woman who was smiling at a private joke.

"Well, from what I gather, Hisoka reminds me of you," Runa said. Neina and her son exchanged glances. "Not just the looks, I mean, although that is a tad freaky. But he reminds me of you when you first enlisted. Doesn't talk much, rather broody…"

"I am still here," Hisoka grumbled.

"Neina was broody?" Tsuzuki asked.

"Oh yes. I remember when you first came, I was trying very hard to make friends with you. But some of those looks you gave me…yeesh! I thought you were trying to set me ablaze!"

"That's because I was. You were a bit much for me to handle back then. Come to think of it, if you look at Runa when we first met, she was Yuma _and _Saya!" Hisoka shuddered.

"I feel I've been insulted." She took a sip of her wine and smiled. "Lord, I'm frightened to think what you would've been like if Hokuto hadn't tamed you."

"I was not 'tamed'. I was subdued and befriended…and later wedded. There's a difference."

"All I know is that you stopped trying to bite the head off of everyone the moment you met them."

"Yeah," Kelton laughed. "She usually waited until the second or third day to do that!"

There were many more conversations and stories exchanged, Neina catching up with what had happened with her friends over the last twenty years, Runa pretending to be in a huff over her friend's youthful appearance, and much laughing. There was even an instant when Hisoka tried to hide a small laugh behind his hand, to which Tsuzuki began yelling loudly as to whether anyone in the restaurant had a camera. He'd had a lot to drink by then.

Outside the restaurant they breathed in the cool night air. Tsuzuki had one hand on Hisoka's shoulder, the alcohol beginning to take its toll. Hisoka was grumbling about his partner's behavior as he did his best not to bend under the weight.

"Maybe it's time we head in…" he said a little louder.

Neina arched her eyebrows at the state of affairs. "Actually, I need to talk to Kelton and Runa about something. Why don't you escort drinky here back to the hotel and I'll follow in a couple of minutes. You can take care of yourself. If all else fails just toss 'em in a ditch and walk away."

"Hey! I'm not drunk and I'm not deaf either. So both of you shut up!" His head fell forward with a groan and everyone sweatdropped.

"I'll see you back at the hotel," Hisoka said.

"Right! And let's go sightseeing tomorrow. There's a lot of London to see in three days." He nodded and started off back in the direction of the hotel.

When they were a good distance around she turned and started walking, motioning for her friends to follow. They knew that look and followed silently. When they were in a park not far away she stopped and they huddled in a small circle.

"What's up Neina? You look tense," Kelton said. "If it's about Muraki, I know you're usually right about this sort of thing so I'm not trusting him. Didn't trust him much before either, he's kind of creepy…"

"No, it's not about him. Although I'm relieved to hear that." Neina delved into her handbag and brought up the scrap of cloth she had recovered from the anima-fied corpse in Avalon the month before. She held it out to them and they both froze with their eyes wide open.

"That's…the Erasers' emblem." Runa said faintly.

"Yeah. I found it on the remains of one of the men who attacked Avalon, _twenty years ago_." They both narrowed their eyes in contempt at the insignia. "If this means what I think it means we could be in trouble."

"Correction, _we_ could be in trouble." Neina tilted her head at Runa in confusion. "_We_ got older. You however are still young and fit."

Her eyes narrowed in worry. "If the Erasers are back, we'll have to put them down again."

They nodded. Neina received their addresses and phone numbers before they said goodnight. She walked back through the park savoring the night air, feeling lighter than air. Everything seemed alright for a moment. Until she passed by a crowd gathered around an alley.

"What's going on?" she asked the nearest person. He turned, his face drawn and pale.

"There's been another murder! A girl, right here…I live across the street, man! It could've been me!" Neina remembered reading about this earlier in the morning, about the new Jack the Ripper. She highly doubted this man would've fit the killers M.O. since he usually went after female prostitutes, but she did feel sorry for the woman under the cloth. She was sure either Scotland Yard or the English Gods of Death were looking into it though, so she moved on. She had learned long ago that getting involved in cases that really didn't involve you often made things far worse.

Neina paused a few feet away. 'Didn't they say Muraki did this sort of thing now and then?' She glanced back, watching as the Bobbies loaded the girl into the ambulance. She shivered and continued on, hoping she was wrong.

Walking back to her room, she ran into Hisoka coming from the ice maker. "I'm guessing that's for Tsuzuki," she said, gesturing to the bowl full of ice water.

"Yeah. I'm gonna try and sober him up a little before he falls asleep. He's really annoying when he's hung over."

"More so than usual? Here, let me come in. I had to deal with many an alcy in my days." She followed him in to see a miserable Tsuzuki lying limp as a rag doll on his bed.

"How much did he drink again?"

"Three bottles of merlot and half a chardonnay."

"Hmmm…this may be beyond my power." Tsuzuki groaned and rolled over.

"Hey, Hisoka, when did you get a pretty twin?" he slurred. "And with such big—"

"The next word out of your mouth had either be 'smile' or 'eyes' or so help me you will die tonight, drinky!" she grated. Hisoka blushed and put the basin down on the nightstand.

"Neina, maybe it would be best if we all just went to bed," he said. Nodding, she walked back through the adjoining door and paused for a moment. "Something wrong?"

"No, just forgot to put up the do not disturb sign. They made my bed, threw me for a minute." She laughed and shut the door, her eyes immediately hardening. She walked over and glared at the note lying on her still rumpled bed. Neina valued her privacy, she never forgot the do not disturb sign. The sound of wind drew her attention and she looked to see the window wide open and leading out to the balcony.

Turning back, she picked up the note and squinted at it, her glasses still in her purse.

_To The Dragon of the West_

_I invite you to a meeting , tomorrow at midnight beneath the wheel of fate. Come, or I will take the green-eyed boy or amethyst eyed man in your place. And I cannot guarantee you will get them back._

_Yours truly, an admirer_

_P.s. Dress appropriately._

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Yes, it is finally done!! You would not believe how hard this chapter was to write. I had no inspiration for five days and then bam! I type all this out in two nights. Go me!!

So, who sent the note? Muraki? Or does someone else know Neina's in London?

**REVEIW**!!! I love hearing from all of you, especially now that i turned off the no anonymous reviews button. (honestly, i don't know if that will make a difference, but yeah...) And i'm still accepting **suggestions!**


	12. A Turn of the Wheel of Fate

No one reviewed the last chapter…I'm worried. PLEASE REVIEW THIS ONE!! I won't stop even if you don't, cause I love this story, but I want some feedback. I'm addicted!!

Disclaimer: It ain't mine, stop asking.

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Tsuzuki groaned and rolled over as light tried to invade his eyes through his eyelids. Who had the nerve to open the curtains this early in the morning?

"Get up, baka, it's almost 10:00," Hisoka said from somewhere in that lighted world.

He groaned again and curled up into a little ball against his pillow and tangled the blankets around his form like a cocoon. "Mmmmnnng…my jet-lag's killing me, 'Soka. I think I need to stay in bed today…"

"That's not jet-lag, you damn lush. It's a hangover from all that wine you drank last night," came Neina's voice from somewhere close by. He grimaced and shrank even further into his protective womb of hotel blankets and shoved the pillow over his head.

Neina arched her eyebrows, not liking being ignored. She gestured to Hisoka, who held up his hands. 'All yours,' he implied. She smiled and rubbed her hands together briskly. She then made held them out, her index and middle fingers pointed down with her others curved toward her palm. In swift motion she turned them upwards and a blast of air sent Tsuzuki rocketing five feet up. He landed with a flop back on the bed with his eyes wide and the blankets fluttering down around him.

"I'm not an alarm clock, Tsuzuki. If you don't get up _now_ I'll keep doing that every three minutes until either the bed breaks or you do." Tsuzuki gulped and didn't like how Hisoka was apparently admiring her methods.

After Tsuzuki was ready they left the hotel to get a late breakfast at a small café just down the street from their hotel. "So, what're we going to do today?" he asked, putting a generous amount of sugar into his coffee.

"I wanted to go sightseeing!" Neina said happily. "Twenty years is a long time, I think I should start learning about what's happened while I was gone."

"I'd…like to see some of their landmarks," Hisoka admitted.

"And I want to find more pastries!" His jubilee deflated at the exasperated stares of his companions and he lowered the fist he had pumped into the air.

When their breakfast was done they set off to explore London. One of their first stops however was a store, where after much confusion and explanations, Neina bought a digital camera.

"What was wrong with film? I thought that boy was going to call the police when I asked where I could get a camera and film."

"Digital is easier. And you can take just picture you want since you can see it before it's taken," Hisoka said.

"Easier?" Neina examined the knobs and buttons, the settings and diagrams, the video card, the lens cap, the carrying bag… "Says you." She began to fiddle with it, trying to learn how to work it. "Smile!" In a flash she had brought the camera up and took a candid picture of Hisoka and Tsuzuki.

"Neina!" She shrugged ruefully and put the camera away.

The day was filled with walking, talking and landmarks. Buckingham Palace, The Tower, Art museums all flew by with photos and smiles abound. Many were taken at Madame Tussaud's that were going to have the others back home cracking up as well.

They stopped for a very late lunch (they had a late breakfast after all) in a café a block from the river. "Since we're so close, how about we head to Big Ben next?" Neina suggested as she took a bite of her sandwich.

"I don't know, I'm getting kind of tired," Tsuzuki said around his hamburger.

"Yeah, and we should save something for tomorrow, right?"

Neina's face was blank for a moment. _Tomorrow…will I be here tomorrow_? That was something she always thought before something like this, a dangerous job or a challenge. _I still have to find that "wheel of fate". And who the hell sent me that note? Muraki? I couldn't tell, dammit! And what the hell do they mean dress appropriately?_ All that raced through her mind in the second that her face was blank. When it passed, she smiled.

"I suppose, but let's at least walk around the outside now that we're down here. It really is pretty cool, from what I remember." She mopped her mouth with her napkin after the last bite of her sandwich and paid for all of them. She had specified that she would pay for the hotel and meals, but souvenirs were their own problems.

Walking around the block, she stopped dead in her tracks and gaped at what she saw across from the parliament building on the edge of the river. "What the hell is that?!" she exclaimed, pointing at the giant Ferris Wheel, taller than all of the buildings around it and maybe even Big Ben.

"That's the London Eye. They erected it a few years ago at the turn of the millennium. It's also called the Millennium Eye," Hisoka explained. He'd read about it in a newspaper years ago and had to admit it was a lot more impressive up close than in print.

Tsuzuki was similarly transfixed before a grin spread across his face. He grabbed Hisoka's hand and began running across the bridge to the other side. "C'mon! The view oughta be great from up there."

"Hey!" Neina ran after them, glaring at the brunette's back. He paid her no mind and kept his hand firmly around his protesting partner's hand.

_I was wrong…Hisoka's hand feels a lot warmer than Neina's_, he thought with a smile. Hisoka blushed, resisting the urge to smack his partner in the head.

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"I can't believe I just shelled out so many pounds…euros for tickets to a Ferris Wheel," Neina grumbled.

"Aw, Neina. We said thank you! And this looks like fun!" They stepped onto the platform, carefully as the wheel had to continue turning constantly and could not stop to allow you on, and she admired the very futuristic white and chrome interior. They had a car all to themselves. "Wow, check it out! You can see all of London from up here!"

"Pretty much," Hisoka agreed.

"Just don't look down," she warned jokingly. Tsuzuki almost immediately looked down and his eyes swirled at the dizzying heights.

"Glad we're already dead, or I'd be afraid of falling from here. Be a nasty way to meet your fate."

"Speak for yourself," Neina muttered. But his words sent off a buzzer in her brain. _Fate_…

The ride around the London eye is approximately thirty-two minutes. When they stepped off, Tsuzuki ran off to find a bathroom, claiming he hadn't known that it would take that long. Neina and Hisoka sat outside the art exhibition hall right in front of the eye to wait for him to return.

When he came out, he was surprised to see Neina waiting for him with her arms crossed. Getting closer, she suddenly grabbed Tsuzuki's tie and brought him down to her eye level. "I need to ask a favor."

"Well this is a fine way to do it!" he whined, trying to straighten. Neina released her grip but her face betrayed her battle with her emotions. "Where's Hisoka?"

"I asked him to find a map so we could get to the nearest subway entrance…" she said quietly. Tsuzuki's glare softened when he realized how plagued she really was.

"Okay, what's the favor?"

"Take Hisoka out tonight without me."

Tsuzuki toppled over in surprise. _What the hell?! Is she trying to fix me up with Hisoka?! Her son, Hisoka?!_ "Uh, um, why? Do you want me to take him out alone that is?" She fidgeted for a moment, looking him over with apprehension.

"Do you swear you won't tell him, no matter what?" Tsuzuki nodded, suddenly eager for a juicy secret. His tail was wagging and everything. She sighed and pulled a folded piece of paper out from her pocket. "I've received an invitation to a meeting. I don't know by who, but it does not sound friendly in the slightest. I don't want either one of you to get involved, especially…"

"Especially if it's Muraki," Tsuzuki finished, entirely serious now. "Neina, this isn't smart. You don't know anything about him other than what he's done to us!"

"I've heard a little bit," she defended. "From what you and the other's have told me, I know a little of what he can do. Besides, I don't even know if it is Muraki. I couldn't sense anything in my room when I found the note. And, it's addressed to 'The Dragon of the West'. That's my title from the Dark Guard, how could he have known that?"

"He has his ways."

Neina crumpled the note in frustration. She looked him dead in the eyes and he looked back unflinching. "It says he'll take Hisoka or you if I don't show up. That's why I'm going, and I'm going alone!"

Tsuzuki regarded her for a moment before he sighed. "Fine. I'll take him to a movie or something."

She pouted and Tsuzuki almost fell down again. He'd never seen Hisoka do that, but god it was cute! "Stop making it sound like torture. I know your going to enjoy it, you complain you two don't spend enough free time together lately."

_Wow, she actually listens when I talk?_

She smiled and bowed slightly. "I'm counting on you to keep him out of trouble, Tsuzuki. Thank you."

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Getting Hisoka to go out that evening proved to be no easy task. He was suspicious by nature, so when Tsuzuki said they should go to a movie and Neina skillfully declined the invitation but insisted he should go, he was immediately chary of what was going on. It was only when Neina claimed she wasn't feeling well and was 'cramping' while holding her lower stomach that he blushed and practically pulled his partner out of the room. He had seen the woman of the Shokan division do that before and it was never fun to be around them, especially with his empathy. Neina called after them to say that if she felt better she would probably go and have a night on the town with Kelton and Runa, so don't worry if she wasn't there when they returned.

"What do you know, that still works on men," Neina mused to herself. She immediately turned to her luggage and pulled everything out, setting them in semi-organized piles on the bed. She had figured out what 'dress appropriately' meant and was searching for the right outfit at the bottom of her bag.

"Aha!" She pulled out a small flat chest, cherry wood embossed with worked silver in the shape of paralyzed flames around the edges. She popped the clasp and took out her Dark Guard uniform with the usual swell of pride.

Her uniform had been specifically tailored upon her joining so that it maximized her fighting style and didn't hinder her movements or powers. The material was like a second skin, light and flexible but incredibly durable. The bottom was a black body suit, backless and strapless that was kept up by a fastened halter collar around her neck. The collar held a dangling charm, the Dark Guard's symbol of a silver shield and black sword. Over that was a dark gray jacket, down to her knees but with short sleeves and black applets on her shoulders. She wore black fingerless gloves and her sword rings on either hand and dark grey boots with buckles over her feet.

Grunting, she pulled a little at the material around her waist. "Well, I guess I should expect it to be a little tight after having a kid…" she muttered.

Making sure no one was down in the street below, she put her hands on the sides of the window frame and propelled herself out. Her jump took her across the street to the roof of the next building and she began to roof hop all the way to the river.

Vaguely she noticed that someone had closed all the streets leading there. There was no one else around, the night unusually quiet and the streets eerily deserted.

Once there, she stood before the London Eye in expectation. She didn't have long to wait.

"You're early," came an amused voice from behind her. She turned calmly and glared at him.

"So it was you, Muraki." The doctor smiled and nodded.

"Yes, very sorry if I seemed so rude as to leave a note, but you weren't in."

"What do you want? And how do you know my title?"

He chuckled and Neina bristled at his friendly demeanor. "Well, it's not really what I want. I honestly didn't know who you were, until someone approached me and told me. I had heard of you, many times over the years. The great Dragon of the West, the fallen Dark Guard's champion and key member."

"Who told you and why?" she spat. "What the hell do you want?"

"Honestly, I'm just the messenger," Muraki said. "I didn't even read the note I sent you, though I wanted to. He's the one who wrote it."

"Who?!" she roared.

Muraki smirked. "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise. Now, I have a question for you. Why are you hanging out with a couple of shinigami here in London?"

"I don't know what your talking about."

Muraki laughed and moved some of his platinum blond banes from his right eye. "Come now, miss Haguro. Ever since the day we've met and I found out your former identity I've kept my eye on you," he chuckled at his own joke. "I've seen you living it up with my two little dolls here in London for the past two days."

_Dolls?!_ Neina felt her anger rise and almost boil over, but she kept it in check. "Cut the crap and answer my questions, you bastard!"

Muraki's eyebrow twitched and his smile turned to a smirk. "Well, now I know why you look so familiar." He walked to stand right before her and she did her best to remain still even as he reached out and traced the side of her face in a whisper soft touch. "You look very much like a doll I once had…and broke."

That did it. She grabbed his wrist and spun to drive her arm into his elbow. There was a snap as she dislocated his shoulder and he jumped back with a growl.

"That was a warning, Muraki-san. I don't enjoy being toyed with. Now, answer me this question: are you the one who has been murdering all the girls around here?"

His smile returned as if she hadn't just nearly snapped his arm off. "Yes and no."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I didn't kill them. Well, not all of them. You see, when I first arrived here, I made a new friend. He killed most of them. And he's the one who ousted your identity. And I believe he's eager to see you."

Neina felt a sudden flood of rage shoot through her and she narrowly jumped away in time to dodge a strike from behind. She now stood between Muraki and a man in a black trench coat and fedora.

"Who…is that?"

"Not sure, really," Muraki answered. "I found him, sealed away in an old temple and I brought him with me here to London. An interesting acquisition. He can sniff out those with powers different from a human's. He's very hungry though. And his favorite foods are sinful women…" She suddenly felt him close to her ear, nearly breathing on her. "And those who can use magic."

Neina's eyes widened in horror as the man's head rolled back to reveal his skin peeling away and black sockets where his eyes once were. He opened his mouth to reveal to rows of razor sharp fangs and he let out a roar of pure blood thirst as he charged at her.

"…Segadalus!"

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Hisoka looked out the window. They had come back from the movies a while ago to find Neina was gone. But she still had not returned and it was past mid-night.

"Don't worry, Hisoka," Tsuzuki said as he sat down on the bed across from him. "She'll be fine. She's out with Kelton and Runa, that's all."

"I'm not worried," Hisoka muttered. "I just got this weird feeling all of a sudden…" 'Like the city was suddenly flooded with a wave of hatred. But it's just from one source.'

A knock at the door drew their attention. Tsuzuki rose and opened the door to reveal Kelton and Runa standing with smiles on their faces. "Can Neina come out and play? We've got something to show her!"

"Isn't she with you?" the blond asked. They looked at each other and back at him.

"No."

Tsuzuki was panicking inside but tried to keep the amiable front erected in front of his partner. "Oh, she must be looking for you then! Let's go find her." He tried to usher them out the door, but he could feel Hisoka's eyes glaring holes into the back of his head.

"Tsuzuki," he growled and his partner winced. "What do you know?"

"I think we just got Neina in trouble," Runa said ruefully to Kelton. He nodded and watched as the taller man rubbed the back of his head.

"Um, well…she might be out with someone else…"

"Who?" they all asked.

"Uh…it might be…" _Don't tell, Hisoka kills me. Do tell, he runs off and tries to take down Muraki by himself. Like there's a choice for me here!_ "I have no idea."

Hisoka glared at him, knowing he was lying. Kelton suddenly perked up. "Oh, could she have gone to see Muraki-san? He was asking about her earlier and creeping the hell out of me while doing it."

Everything erupted into chaos after that. After a moment where his breath ceased Hisoka ran up and took the man by the lapels of his jacket. "What the hell did you just say?!"

Kelton and Runa were surprised but had no reason to think that they shouldn't tell him. "Dr. Muraki was asking about your mother today. He kept asking if there was anything 'special' about her. I said no, but he was pretty insistent…"

"Where is he?!"

"I-I don't know! I haven't seen him since this afternoon! What's gotten into you?"

"You don't think he'd try anything with Neina, do you?" Runa scoffed. "Please. That's asking for death right there, considering how powerful—"

Hisoka whirled to face his partner. "You knew, didn't you?" Tsuzuki looked pained for a moment before he nodded.

"She asked me not to tell you. She said it was best not to go after him here. And then he sent her a challenge…"

"So she's going after him anyway!" he yelled. He pushed past Kelton and Runa and dashed down the hall. Ignoring Tsuzuki calling after him, he focused on what _he_ felt: anger, hurt, and betrayal.

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Neina dodged to the left as the inhuman attacked. Muraki had escaped his path before then and sat at the top of the bridge to watch the fight. She growled but looked back to her pressing concern of the man before her.

"You're Segadalus, aren't you?" she asked calmly. It was key to remain calm.

The mouth cracked open and a laugh escaped the corpse puppet before her. "So glad you remember me."

"It's hard to forget such choking malice. I have no idea how you hid it."

"I have waited…" he went on as if she never spoke. "I have waited…years to be released and find you. I wandered the earth after I broke free, but you were no where. Then I heard of your return, whispered from your old home." He laughed again. "I will consume you, little sorceress! You will be part of me, now and forever."

"That's what you said last time." Neina dropped into a defensive stance, her hands flat and palms facing her and her feet slightly parted.

"Last time you had your precious partner by your side. This time you are alone."

Neina tensed for a moment but relaxed. "I need no one's help to defeat you!" She rushed him this time. He blocked her first strike, but she immediately followed and pierced his chest wither bare fingers. The poor corpse he inhabited had been dead for far too long and it took a lot of will power not to retch at the stench that invaded her senses. He jumped back, his hand going to the seeping hole in his chest.

"Mantis style kung-fu!" she heard Muraki from somewhere above. "I have to say, I'm impressed. Very few know that style."

"Shut up! I'll deal with you after him!" She threw her hand out and a wave of fire surged at the monster. He screamed and twisted in agony before he abandoned the body and stood before her in his true form.

15 feet high, whit skinned with blue stripes and red eyes, Segadalus was a demon of the higher order. His face was long, like a horse's, but his eyes and body resembled those of a praying mantis. His legs were resembled those of a dinosaur's and his forearms were long with saber like claws on the end. He opened his mouth for another roar, revealing one again the double rows of fangs hidden within.

"Just as ugly as I remember you," Neina cajoled. Ignoring the burning remains, they began to battle all out, Neina defending and throwing punches and the demon attempting to run her through with his claws.

At one point he tried to swing down at her throat, but she blocked and pushed her free hand up into his stomach. "**Shaflamere**!" Fire erupted from her palm, but he dodged this time. The moment he stopped however water from the river rose up and slammed him down.

"From fire to water…very nice," Muraki said.

'God, that prick is annoying the hell out of me!' "**Eubdo**!" Still controlling the water, she formed five giant ice spears in the air. She pierced one in each arm, leg, and finally his back. He howled in pain and anger but broke from them. Standing shakily, his arm suddenly stretched and snatched her around the middle.

Tossing her behind his back, she would hit the water if she hadn't activated flight a few feet from it's surface. He however dove straight in and swam as swift and nimble as a shark below it's surface.

"Shit! Where'd he go?" She kept her senses open, but he was masking them like a pro.

"Neina!" Her head snapped up to the bridge, where Hisoka was looking down at her.

"Hisoka, what're you doing here?"

"That's my question! What do you think your—"

"Well well, you've arrived, boy." Hisoka tensed and turned to see Muraki regarding him from down the bridge. "And here I thought I would be only watching the fun tonight." He stepped forward, the hand nursing his arm now reaching out for the boy.

Neina was between them in a second. "Stay away from him, you sicko!"

He stepped back, more from the look in her eye than anything. They were golden and slit like a predators. Hadn't they been green only moments before?

"So protective. Is he that important to you? A long lost friend? A lover? Did I take him from you before you were ready to let go?"

"He's my son!!" Neina hissed. Muraki's eyes widened a fraction of a centimeter and he looked from blond to blond.

"Your…oh my, this is too good! It's too rich!! The boy's your son?" He laughed, doubling over with his good arm pressed against his stomach.

Neina growled in her throat but turned her gaze to Hisoka. "Go, while he's distracted."

"No!"

"Hisoka, please, I don't want you getting hurt!"

"You can't take him alone!"

"It's not him I'm fighting, it's—" As if cued in, Segadalus rose from beneath the surface, grabbed her and plummeted back beneath the water with her in tow. Hisoka stared open mouthed as he watched the scene in slow motion.

"Neina!!" He rushed to the edge and looked down at the fading ripples that signaled where they had gone under.

"Well," Muraki said lightly. "Now that that's over, I need something else to entertain me." He walked forward and placed a hand on his shoulder while he was still distracted. Hisoka doubled over with a shout as electric sparks danced across the curse marks. He looked up into the sadistic smile of his tormentor as he fell to his knees.

Muraki suddenly released him and jumped back with a grunt of annoyance. Hisoka caught his breath and looked up to see Tsuzuki riding Byakko and looking very pissed. They landed on the bridge and the brunette was immediately at his partner's side.

"Hisoka are you all right?"

"Y-yeah. But Neina…she just got dragged into the river by a…thing!"

Tsuzuki whirled and faced the doctor again. "What have you done now!?"

"Why, whatever do you mean, Mr. Tsuzuki?" he smiled. "By the way, I've healed completely from our last encounter." He raised the edge of his shirt ( you know, in that seductive way evil bastards have) to reveal a pearlescent scar on his pale skin. Tsuzuki winced and whined. "I cherish it, Tsuzuki. It's a scar you placed on me."

"Stop it!" Hisoka yelled, stepping between them. "I'm not going to let you do this to him again! Just stop it!"

Muraki frowned at the interruption. "What will stop me, boy—"

There was a sudden crash as Segadalus was thrown down between all of them. Neina crashed down, seconds later, into the monster's stomach. It took a moment to realize this was Neina. Her hair was a stunning white and her eyes a fierce gold color, like a cat's. All traces of the good natured woman were gone, replaced by a fierce warrior. The demon growled and swiped at her feet, but she had already run away down the railing of the bridge. They all watched transfixed as he followed.

Neina turned and kicked out at his head, sending him spiraling back into the water. She followed, floating above the water's surface like a dragon fly. He tried to pounce on her again, but she readily caught one of his arms and spun-flung him into the side canal. Before he hit the ground, she kicked him up like a soccer ball. In a flash she was behind him and focused a blast of concentrated air to slam him into the cobbled street.

He was twitching, but remained where he was. Neina landed next to him in the small crater he created, glaring at him coldly. "Last time we fought, we showed you mercy and merely sealed you away, Segadalus." She raised her arm and one of her blades appeared. "I won't make the same mistake again." The blade was thrust down into his rib and he let out a gurgling scream. The other blade went into to his throat, where she twisted it viciously and the scream abruptly cut off.

The slick sound of her swords being withdrawn sent shivers down Hisoka and Tsuzuki's back. Muraki was staring at her, deep in contemplation. He calmly strolled down from the bridge to stand before her. "I'm impressed." Her eyes, still colored gold, narrowed dangerously. "I'll have to keep my guard up around you."

"Muraki!!" Hisoka yelled. Before he was able to make it to them, Muraki disappeared in a blast of air that temporarily blinded them. "Dammit!!" The boy growled angrily, feeling endless frustration that he had gotten away again.

"Calm down, Hisoka," Neina said soothingly. "This isn't the first time—"

"SHUT UP!!" he screamed at her. She recoiled in shock at the vehemence in his voice. He was breathing heavily, anger rolling off him in thick sheets.

Tsuzuki, though not empathic, sensed this and backed away carefully with Byakko by his side. Hisoka truly angry was a frightening sight. Deciding that this was better left for the two of them to hash out alone, he continued to back up. "I'm…gonna go find Kelton and Runa. You two just wait here and…talk." He climbed back on the white tiger, who gratefully flew off back in the direction they came.

Hisoka and Neina barely noticed his departure. Hisoka was glaring at her and Neina looked actually nervous for the first time that evening. "What the hell were you trying to prove?! Why the hell do you look like this?!" He gestured wildly at her hair and eyes. "And those moves…Where do you get off, facing him alone?! Never even telling me he was here?!!"

"Hisoka, I was just—"

"Just what? Just trying to protect me? Like a little kid?" She didn't answer, looking both pained and sorry. _Why am I not surprised? I'm always the one who needs protecting_! "I don't need your protection and I don't need you or all your stupid secrets!! I don't need you!! Why don't you just stay out of my life?! I wish I'd never found you and that stupid tree!!"

Hisoka sucked in a gasp when he realized what he had just said, but stood his ground. Even when Neina's eyes turned so unbearably hurt he convinced himself he didn't feel guilty. But he had to turn his back to keep it so.

"Hisoka, I never meant…I…You're all I—" Neina caught the barest flash from the crater out of the corner of her eye. "Hisoka, get down!!" She dove forward just as he was turning back and pushed him to the ground.

Blasts of radiant energy caught her where Hisoka had once stood and crashed her against the building. The crater she made was much deeper than Segadalus' and she gasped in pain and shock when she hit. Her eyes turned back to green as they closed. Slowly she fell from the wall, her hair returning to a light gold, and collapsed to the ground in a heap, still and crumpled like a ragdoll, her face turned away from him.

Hisoka stared at the limp body in horror. "N…Neina?" No answer, no sound, no movement. Shaking a little, he crawled the few feet forward and reached out to her. "Neina?" He gently put his hand under her head and turned her face to him. Her face was still, smooth, unmarred by the pain she must've felt when she had been hit. As her head tilted to the side, a small trickled of blood leaked past her lips. He felt something wet on his palm and pulled it away to reveal blood pooling from the back of her head.

_I'm not a shinigami, geniuses! My healing isn't natural, it doesn't just happen. I have to consciously activate it with a spell. If I'm unconscious or dead..._

"NEINA!!!!"

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Holy mother of god, _that_ was a long chapter!! Yeesh! Hope you all like it better than the last when, considering none of you reviewed.

**REVIEW!!!!!! **I love to hear from you. Please review. Pwease? Don't make me pout.


	13. Because She Loves You

**laustic: **It's alright, I totally understand. I think I wrote that opening and closing when I was in a rather manic mood (I write them last). I understand getting wrapped up in your own work, believe me

Disclaimer: By reading this, you give me temporary control over your mind, but no rights to Yami no Matusei.

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Hisoka set Neina's head down again, trembling at the sight of blood on his hands. _It's…it's just like that time. Like Tsubaki…_

The sound of claws on stone drew his attention reluctantly from the red stain. Segadalus rose shakily to his feet, a morbid grin spread across his long face. Blood still poured from the wounds in his chest and throat, so his voice gurgled and rasped as he spoke. "Well…I had hoped to kill you and watch the Dragon cry in anguish, but this works as well. Now I can eat both of you and heal myself with your power." He began walking toward them, swaying like a marionette on a single remaining string but still walking.

"Stay back!" Hisoka raised his hands as he spoke. Neina lay slightly between them, her face still turned toward him but still and emotionless. He could sense nothing from her, not even her shields, and her breathing was shallow and erratic. Blood pooled beneath her head, staining her hair a dark red.

Segadalus laughed at his gesture. "What will you do, boy? I can smell your power; it is weak and not even awakened. You are no match for me, even as wounded as I am. Your only chance just gave her life to save you."

Hisoka tensed but remained steady. Delving into his pocket, he took out an emergency sutra he had been carrying. Calling it forth, it erected a domed shield around the both of them, clear but visible.

"So you are a sutra user…just like her partner from all those years ago." Hisoka was confused by his words but didn't falter in his shield. "No matter. You're no where near his power level either. I'll smash those shields and make you watch as I eat the woman. Then I'll eat you!" Another blast of energy erupted from the demon's mouth and crashed against the shield. Hisoka grunted but pushed back as hard as he could, feeding his energy into the sutra shield.

_I can't let him win!! I can't let Neina die, not here, not like this!_ The blast intensified and Hisoka felt the sweat pouring down his face as he poured even more power into the shield. But cracks began to appear in the shield despite this and he felt it weakening. _No! Not like this!_ _I won't lose like this!! I need to attack, dammit!_

Segadalus stopped and grinned triumphantly when the shield was all but a network of cracks. But suddenly it lit up with even more power. He recoiled in shock as it divided on itself, the edges peeling away to turn sharp. The stretched and flew with purpose to stab at him, ripping him to shreds in a feeding frenzy of glowing ribbons of light. Hisoka watched, awed and transfixed as the demon's body fell back to the ground, shredded and useless to anyone now.

"H…how…?" he gurgled, before releasing his last breath. The shield turned attacker disappeared, fading away like the embers of a firecracker. Hisoka sat, numb but breathing, filling up his lungs with the night.

_Did I do that?_ Several moments passed without an answer. He looked down, but Neina had not even moved. No one else had seen what had just happened, so had it happened?

"Hisoka!!" His head whipped up to see Tsuzuki riding Byakko over the bridge with Runa and Kelton coming up behind. The all stopped when they saw Segadalus' mangled corpse so close. "Hisoka, what the heck happened?! How—"

"Tsuzuki…"

"—did this happen?! Wasn't he already dead? He looks like someone put him through the paper shredder or something!"

"Tsuzuki…"

"I'll say!" Kelton agreed. "I've never seen Neina do something like this. Unless you count that one time…"

"Tsuzuki!!" They all started at the harsh yell that echoed around them. Finally they noticed Neina lying just before him, still and bleeding. "She…she won't wake up…"

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It had been surprising, to say the least, when Kelton had suddenly transformed into a giant anthropomorphic wolf. Right after Hisoka had drawn their attention to the wounded Neina he had invoked his transformation and gently picked her up. He stood a good eight feet tall, covered in graying black fur, his eyes still remarkably human in a canine face.

Byakko carried the rest of them as the werewolf bore the woman swiftly through the streets of London. But rather than take her to a hospital, he bounded up the side of the hotel where the three of them had been staying and jumped through Neina's still open window.

"Kelton, I'll ask about the fur later, but what the hell are you doing?! We need to take her to a hospital," Tsuzuki said as he flew in behind. He had sent Byakko back, promising to explain everything later when they had time.

"And tell them what?" he said coolly, surprising them again as his voice came out clearly from the canine muzzle. "We have no alibi, no explanation for what happened. Besides, it would just cause more trouble later."

"What?" Tsuzuki asked as he set Neina down on the bed with his jacket behind her head.

"When Neina regains enough consciousness, she'll heal her wounds. We bring in a half dead woman with a head wound, she's up and walking a few hours later. That would be a hard one to explain to the orderlies now, wouldn't it?"

Tsuzuki grimaced but nodded, knowing he was right. Hisoka peered around him, looking away from her ashen face when he couldn't take it. _It's my fault...I wasn't paying attention! I said all those horrible things, and she still saved me!_

"Haruna, can you stop the bleeding from her head? At this rate, it could be life threatening."

Runa stepped forward and knelt by her bedside. "I can try, but my powers aren't what they once were. Stopping the bleeding is probably all I can do." She placed her hand a hairs breath above Neina's heart and closed her eyes in concentration. Tsuzuki and Hisoka watched in wonder as a soft golden glow enveloped her for a moment before traveling down to the bedridden woman and concentrating at the back of her head.

The glow brightened for a moment before it died away. Neina remained still, not even flinching, her breathing still shallow and erratic. "I stopped the bleeding, but that's about the best I can do. The wound's still fresh and she still has internal damage. I've gotten old…" she trailed off faintly. Kelton placed his large hand-like paw around hers comfortingly.

"You stopped the bleeding. That might've been the most important step to save her." Tsuzuki nodded empathetically and Hisoka did his best to seem supportive.

She smiled at them and began to walk towards the door. "I'll get some ice and water and a clean towel for her. Kelton, you'd better stay here till the transformation wears off. Mr. Tsuzuki, Hisoka, if you could make sure she's comfortable till I get back, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course!" Tsuzuki said. She left and Kelton sat down with a sigh in a nearby chair. There was a long pause, which mostly consisted of Hisoka and Tsuzuki staring at him. "So…you're a…"

"Werewolf," Kelton grunted. "Got bit back when I met the Dark Guard. But I can control it fine, it just takes me a while to change back if I force it." He sighed and moved a strand of hair away from Neina's lips, gently without using his claws.

Hisoka observed the gesture and felt a slight tingling around the edge of his awareness. "Did you…do you love her?"

Kelton drew his hand away and stared at him in wonder. "How…? Ah, empathy! One of your mother's traits I had loved to forget." He smiled and leaned back. "If you mean as man can love a woman, once I did. But she and Hokuto were truly meant for each other. He loved her more than I ever could. And I've found another I love that way, stronger than I thought possible. That was the surprise I wanted to tell Neina that I had forgotten when…" Suddenly, he leapt up. "Dammit! I need to go get rid of that demon's corpse. It's gonna cause a big stink in the morning if I don't. I'll be right back."

Before they could object, he dove out the window and was gone. Tsuzuki sat down in the chair he vacated, not even noticing or caring about the stray fur left behind. "A witch and a werewolf…Neina has some interesting friends."

"You're one to talk. You have twelve shiki under your control," Hisoka said blandly.

"Oh, yeah," Tsuzuki laughed weakly. He watched Hisoka, who just stood by Neina's bedside, alternating brief glances between the floor, the sheets, and occasionally the woman herself. "You okay?"

The amethyst eyed man expected his friend to say yes, to not reply at all, to be indignant at his accusation that he was anything but fine. Instead he watched those pale fists clench tighter and heard a ragged breath drawn in. "It's my fault…"

"What?" He couldn't see the boy's eyes, but that voice sounded so pained. Just like when after the Queen Camellia, when…

"It's my fault. I…yelled at her. I screamed at her. I lost control and said…that I wish I'd never met her. I let my guard down, and Segadalus attacked, aiming for me…" A single tear rolled down his cheek onto the floor. "Why?! Why did she do it, after everything I said?! Why didn't she hate me back for saying what I did?! Why?! Why…"

Hisoka gasped as he felt arms encircle his shoulders. He was drawn back into the embrace, the arms sliding down around his own to trap him in the comforting feeling. Tsuzuki set his chin against the back of his crown and shushed and protests from the younger boy softly. "She loves you, Hisoka," he said quietly. The boy shivered, shaking his head. "Oh yes she does. She loves you very much. That's why she saved you. She didn't even think, she just did it. Why? Because you're her son. Even if you can't remember it, she does. She remembers her love for you, it never died or faded. I'm beginning to think it can't. She didn't want you to be hurt, not if she could prevent it."

"How do you know?" he whispered.

"She told me. Maybe in not so many words, but it's obvious if you look and listen carefully. I don't think she's said it out loud for the same reason I—" He cut himself off abruptly. "I…should stop talking now. I shouldn't talk for her, I should let her tell you this." He tightened his hold for a brief instant and smiled. "I haven't gotten to hold you like this in a while."

"Baka!" he muttered, but didn't move to break the moment.

"Ahem, am I interrupting something?" The both looked toward the door, where Runa stood holding a bowl of ice water and a rag. "If I may break up this touching scene, I would like to make sure Neina doesn't die now."

The two broke apart, Hisoka blushing beet red and Tsuzuki trying to look unaffected but reddening all the same. Runa knelt down next to her friend and gently lifted her head enough that she could pull Kelton's now ruined jacket away and slide the moistened towel underneath. "Where'd…"

"Kelton went to get rid of the demon's body," Tsuzuki supplied. She nodded and sighed.

"I had imagined this night going a little differently in my head. We realized we forgot to tell her something important last night, and we wanted to do something we promised we would do around now, so I guess I was just expecting another party. I'm happy she wasn't hurt any worse than this. I've had to stand watch over her death bed too often."

Hisoka looked away from examining the bed and turned to her. "This happened a lot?"

"Oh, yes! The Dark Guard was never a safe job. I used to curse our boss for ever letting someone as young as Neina into the Guard." She laughed softly. "But the truth is, despite her age, she was the strongest of us. She's even wearing her old uniform right now." The smile faded and she glared at nothing in particular. "She had a chip on her shoulder against another organization known as the Erasers. That's why she became so strong."

"Are they…the ones who killed her family?" Tsuzuki asked quietly.

"Yes. They are against magic intermingling with normal society in any way. Neina is what they refer to as a half-ling, one who is only part magic. And they hate her more than ever because she's stronger than most normal magicians. And she's beautiful."

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"In their eyes, she is an abomination. A blight on the world. Abominations shouldn't be beautiful, and I'm quoting here from one of their psycho senior officers that she beat like a drum a long time ago," Runa grinned at the memory.

Hisoka looked at her once more. _An abomination…? Like me?_

"Neina once told me," Runa continued, " 'I fight for revenge, that's true. But that's not all I fight for. I fight so that others may live, so that others may smile, so that others will not cry like I have cried. And if my revenge costs my life, then I will pay it in full,' and here she grinned, for possibly the first time I've ever seen. 'But they'll have a hard time collecting it from me before I'm done with it!'" Runa laughed and rose. "That's why I know she'll be fine, even now. Unless she says it's alright, Neina will never give up her life. Not with out one hell of a fight. Unless it's for the sake of someone she loved." Runa didn't notice Hisoka's clenching fists as she walked away and laid down on the couch in the sitting room. (**author note**: I know didn't specify that before, but the rooms are connected via a little sitting room they share. It's an expensive hotel room.)

"I'm tired, so I'm just going to take a little nap. If she wakes up, call me." With that, she settled into the couch and was soon softly snoring.

"Tsuzuki…" he said quietly.

"Shhhhh, she didn't know, Hisoka. Neina will be fine. Try to relax," he helped his partner into the chair and rubbed between his shoulders encouragingly. "I'm going to rest, like Runa, just for a little while. Stay up and wait for Kelton to return. But try to get some sleep eventually, okay?" The blond nodded and watched Tsuzuki leave back towards their room.

Once the door was closed, Hisoka paused a few moments before scooting his chair quietly to Neina's bedside. Taking a deep breath, he gently touched Neina's hand and sent one thought as clearly as possible to her. _I'm sorry._

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There was darkness everywhere. It undulated, pushing towards her and pulling back. It was like being trapped beneath beach waves on a moonless night. If she didn't get out soon, she wondered if she would be trapped. Or would she begin to dream…

Something was suddenly pulling at her, hoisting her up above the dark shadow water. It was a voice, soft and gentle, full of regret. She wanted to comfort that voice, to sooth the regret in it, so she allowed herself to be pulled up.

Neina groaned and opened one eye blearily. Her head felt like a hundred tap dancing gnomes in golf cleats had done a number in her brain. What had happened to cause that? She tried to clear the fuzzy musings of her delirious brain until she came to that final mental image of Segadalus still alive and about to attack her son.

She sat bolt upright, immediately letting out a foul string of muttered curses at the onset of vertigo and the pounding of blood rushing to her wounded head. She pressed a hand to the back of her head and grimaced at the feeling of dried blood flaking in her hair. _Ugh! I need a shower. And a strong dose of aspirin._

Keeping her eyes closed against the dizziness, she brought her hand to her mouth and breathed gently. She didn't need to see the gentle green flames envelop her long fingers to know they were there. Gently she pressed them to the wound and push up. She winced once, but felt better once the wound was gone. Taking her hand, she laid it against her stomach and felt the internal bruises and ruptures healing as well.

Opening her eyes, she blinked and waited for the room to right itself. She saw that Kelton (who was back in his human form) and Runa were passed out in the sitting room, and she could feel Tsuzuki in the room beyond if she sent out a small tendril of her awareness. But where was…

A small groan caught her attention and she blinked when she realized that Hisoka was bent over in the chair next to her, resting his head in his folded arms on her bed. She was surprised, but slowly a gentle smile crossed her lips. Gingerly she stroked through his hair. _It's okay, Hisoka. I heard you. I heard._

At her touch he shifted and stirred, finally opening his eyes. He blinked and looked up, meeting another pair of green orbs looking down. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." Her voice was small and croaky, and she coughed once to clear it of the congealed blood.

Hisoka was up in the blink of an eye, blushing but also looking fretful. "Neina! You're awake—"

"Shhhh, you'll wake up the others," she whispered, placing her fingers over his lips. He blushed again but sat back down.

"Neina, I…"

"You don't have to say it, Soka-chan. I heard you before. You led me out of the darkness." She squeezed his hand and smiled reassuringly.

"N…no, I should say this," he determined. "Neina, what I said before, I didn't mean it! I just…I don't want to be treated as a kid. I'm stuck like this, forever, but I don't want to be underestimated because of that. I want to be powerful enough to…to protect someone special…" He blushed again and Neina arched her eyebrows. "I want to be the one who protects sometimes, not just the one who needs protecting."

Neina nodded slowly. "I understand that better than you think. You know I was very young when I joined the Dark Guard, don't you?" He nodded. "Well, when I first got there, they didn't let me do a damn thing! Everyone thought I was too young to 'face the horrors of battle'. Feh! I basically had to recruit my own partner, too! And he still tried to protect me from almost everything, even though I would never learn if I didn't do it myself."

_Now that sounds like Tsuzuki,_ Hisoka thought.

"But, and I do believe I've told you this before Hisoka, you are important to me." She leaned in and pressed her forehead against his, even though it made him look a tad uncomfortable. "You are my son, Hisoka. My only son. You're all I have left in the world. Don't get me wrong, Kelton and Runa are dear to me, like family, but…you're different. I want to keep you from being hurt, from feeling pain, and at the same time I want to see you grow and flourish. They are rather contradictory thoughts at this point," she laughed.

"So bear with me, please? Sometimes I'll do things that seem foolish or stupid, but I'm only trying to be a part of your life in the least troubling way. And, as we've seen tonight, sometimes that will cause a lot of trouble. It's what parents like me do."

Ever so slowly a small smile spread out on Hisoka's lips. Neina did her best not to move or speak, not to ruin this moment. But she couldn't control the smile spreading over her own face as well. "I…think I understand."

"Good. Now, what happened to Segadalus?" She backed away and looked around the room suspiciously, as if he would jump out behind one of the chairs.

"He's dead."

"What?! Who…?! How…?!"

Hisoka shifted uncomfortably. "Um, well, I think I did it."

Neina stared at him with her mouth slightly agape. "Wha…?"

"Well, after you were knocked out, I threw a shield up to protect us from him. But he started attacking and busting it down and…I don't know! I just kept thinking that I needed to attack him, that I need to bring him down, and suddenly my shield starts actually attacking him! Like it was some kind of…army of swords or something."

Neina listened in silence, thinking. When she looked him in the eyes, Hisoka blushed at the look of pride and affection she saw there. "I can see we have a lot to talk about. Well, mostly I have a lot that I still need to explain to you. But, I think that can wait until a time when we're both not so tired, hmmm?"

Hisoka nodded hesitantly. "Are you sure you don't need anything?"

"I need sleep, that's what I need! Now off with you, go sleep in your own bed or you'll get a back ache." She watched him rise and walk out towards the door.

"I love you, Hisoka," she whispered.

"Huh?" He turned, his head and she smiled.

"I said, 'see you tomorrow, Hisoka'."

"Right. Goodnight." He left and Neina laid herself back into the bed.

"He uses fuda…and changed his shield into an attack spell. He may be more likehim than I first imagined." Raising her left hand, she looked sadly at the silver band around her ring finger, next to one of her sword rings. "I wish you were here, my love. You'd know what to do about it, and do it better than I could." Turning over onto her side, she wrapped the blankets tightly around her and closed her eyes for a more peaceful sleep and to fight against the bitter loneliness she suddenly felt creeping in.

And the shadow outside her window disappeared into the night.

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"You're married?!" Neina yelled, looking between both of her friends in shock. "When, to who?"

"Well, it was about two years after you disappeared and as to who…" They leaned in to each other and smiled. "To each other!"

Neina eyes got even wider and slowly, as the concept hit her she smiled. "Oh my gods!!" She lunged and grasped them both around the neck. "Congrats! I know it's, like, almost twenty years late, but congrats!!" She laughed and released them. "Oh! This means Hokuto owes me money." Runa slapped her shoulder and they all shared a laugh.

"We also found this!" Kelton brought out what looked like a tin box. The label on the lid read 'Property of Sakuya C. Haguro, Haruna A., Hokuto Kurosaki, and Kelton Mafferie. Open if you dare!'

"No way! Our time capsule!" Neina took it in her hands and looked at it in amazement.

"Yep! We dug it up at the twenty year marker, about four years ago." Runa's gaze turned sad. "It felt wrong, without you and Hokuto there. We never opened it. And you can't either!" she said accusingly, jabbing a finger at her. "You have to wait until we get back to Japan and come and visit you, understand?"

Neina blinked for a moment, but then smiled and hugged them both again. "I understand. We'll see you then."

"Are you sure you're well enough to go?" Kelton asked. All of them stood outside the airport, our group of three with their bags and Runa and Kelton bidding them a save voyage. Hisoka and Tsuzuki were further up on the steps, letting the three old friends have a few moments together in their own world to say good-bye.

"Yes, I'm fine! Besides, their vacation time is running out and Tatsumi is almost as scary as Schroeder when in a foul mood." Runa and Kelton blanched and shuddered.

"Well, alright," Kelton said severely. "But you have to promise to call and/or write us every now and then. Twenty years is far too long to wonder what had happened."

Neina smiled, but her eyes looked saddened. "I promise, you won't have to wait that long again."

Neina hugged the time capsule close as she trotted up the stairs, turning to wave once more at her friends. Because without them, she wouldn't be who she was now. She wouldn't be where she was now. _Hisoka is very important to me…but I know I'd be lost without them too. _With that last thought, she turned and followed them into the airport.

As they left, Kelton and Runa both turned serious looks up to the tree next to them. "Well, she's gone now," Runa grated. "You coward! You could've faced her just now, but you decided to stay hidden."

"Calm down, Runa-koi. He has his reasons." She snorted and walked off, the arch of her back stating that she didn't want to talk right now. Kelton sighed but returned his gaze to the tree branches. "She is right, though. You have to face her sooner or later." A shadow shifted in the branches, and a gust of wind picked up. Whatever they had spoken to was now gone, as if part of the wind itself.

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Ba-bum-ba!! **Who is the mystery shadow**? Whew! This chapter underwent several revisions before I was done.

You know the drill. Here's where I beg you to **REVIEW!!** Opinions, predictions, critiques, i don't give a flying fish i just want to hear from you. So do it, and make the author happy.

**Suggestions** are still welcome as well.


	14. Lessons Worth Learning

More vignettes!! Enjoy.

Thank you **Hiyami (** I got your message. thank you very much, i'm so flattered**! feed the ego and the chapters will come faster!)**and **Mizuki hikari**. New reviewers are always welcome. I however can neither confirm or deny your predictions at this time. In other words, you must wait and read XD!! And thank you **laustic,** as always!! I'm so glad to hear you say you look forward to this!

Disclaimer: Let me break it down, Neina & other OCs are mine. Story is mine. YnM cast not mine.

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1

Hisoka glared at the blond woman, wishing with all his might he had the ability to strike back right now. "Dammit!!" he growled, struggling once again.

"Hey, you were the one who offered to help me train and learn my fighting style," Neina laughed.

"Yeah, but…"

"But what? You weren't expecting me to go this far so early?"

"Yes!"

She giggled and tilted her head so she could look at him better. "Just because you're my son doesn't mean I'm going to go easy on you, Hisoka honey."

He snorted and stopped struggling. "How can you be this strong anyway? You're a woman!" Hisoka gestured angrily at her hand, which was holding him up by the ankle like a prize catch.

Neina glared at the last comment but shrugged. "My gender has nothing to do with it. Lots of milk, gym hours, and, oh yeah, a levitation spell helps too!" She grinned as she let go and he remained floating up side down. "I transferred it to you when I caught your foot. Don't go for the showy moves like jump kicks all the time, sometimes simple is the better way to go. Think of it as lesson number five."

"What happened to lessons one through four?"

"You would've learned them if you had paid attention. Here," she reached out and took his foot again. Very gently she lowered him until he lay flat on gym matt in the Ministry's training dojo. "Okay, now what do you say we start from the beginning. Show me your stance again."

Sighing, he rose and set his feet about shoulder with apart with his hands in front of him, slightly cupped with his thumbs inward. Walking around him, Neina nodded.

"Good. You're getting a lot better. But keep your head up; it's your opponent's job to watch you, not yours. That's lesson one." She rushed forward, punching her arm just to the side of his head. His hands had come up to block or defend, but only just a second too late. "Always be aware of your opponent's movements. That's lesson number two." She suddenly hooked her leg around his, but he was ready this time. Pushing off from her knee with his other foot, he jumped back and landed in a defensive position.

Neina's eyebrows twitched a fraction of an inch and she smiled. "I guess you've been paying more attention than I thought. Here comes lesson number three!" She shot across the mat, aiming her hand to wrap around his neck. "If you're fighting to win, it's best to aim for the upper extremities. The neck!" he blocked. "Or the head!" she swung around to smash her other arm into his temple, but he pushed it down and dodged back. "Or for any key weakness in their defense. For example, if they have a bad knee go for that."

Hisoka was surprised that such a ruthless tactic was being suggested by a woman who had baked them muffins, yet again, just yesterday morning. "That doesn't seem very fair."

Neina sighed as she began to move around him foot over foot. He moved counter wise so that they began to circle one another. "Hisoka, if I may quote my old teacher here, 'This isn't some kids' Karate tournament. The way we fight, the enemies fight, we play for keeps. Fight to live, especially if that means you fight harder than everyone else.'" She smiled. "That's what he told me when I said that as well."

Hisoka nodded slowly, then suddenly moved to the left and slid to kick at her feet. "Was that lesson four?" She flipped over him and landed behind. He froze when he felt two fingers pressing into his side, the sharply manicured nails ready to dig in just below his ribcage.

"No. Lesson number four: if you're fighting to kill, aim for one of the lethal target points and follow through like you mean it. There are eight truly lethal and easily accessible points in a human being." Hisoka shivered at the mechanical tone, as if she were reciting them in a classroom when the teacher called on her. "The liver," she pressed her fingers a tiny bit harder to emphasize this one before rising and pointing out the rest on herself. "Throat, spinal column, lungs, the jugular vein, the subclavian artery, kidneys and heart. Aiming for and successfully attacking any of these points inflicts a mortal wound on the enemy." Her eyes turned soft, almost mournful. "They also mean a quick death, which will be easier on the both of you."

Hisoka watched open mouthed as she walked over to the bench in the wall of the dojo and picked up one of the towels to run over her hair and neck. He wondered what the hell that man had been training her for to teach her that.

"Uh, w-wait!" She turned her head with a questioning gaze. "What about lesson six? Are we getting to that today?" She blinked but smiled.

"Lesson six." She tossed him one of the water bottles she brought. "When beginning your physical training for Mantis Kung Fu, go it slow. It's best to be patient and ease into it."

"You made that up!!"

"No I didn't. I'm teaching you just the way I was trained. And actually, since I'm explaining the lessons, we're going a lot faster. Sagara-sensei made me learn everything the hard way."

"So you are going easy on me!" he accused.

"Yes and no. It's really just because we don't have the proper equipment." She shook her head and sighed wistfully. "There's just no one you can talk to about digging a tiger pit anymore." Hisoka blanched and she giggled at his expression. "Also, you're older physically than I was. I was eight when we began my training. That's another good reason to go it slow, so that you can learn everything properly. That is, if you still want to learn…"

Hisoka sniffed and folded his arms. "You aren't getting rid of me that easily. We'll start again—"

"Day after tomorrow. You may be alright, but I stopped my serious training after I got married and had you. I need sometime to rebuild my strength!" She led the way out, smiling to herself. _I won't get rid of you that easily, huh? Funny, I thought that was my line._

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2

"Okay, move your right leg a little more…there! That's the position," Hisoka said as he looked over Neina's pose. They were in the archery section of the dojo and both dressed in the traditional gi's for practice and Neina's hair in a high ponytail.

Nodding, she brought up the bow and arrow. "Like this?"

"Right, that looks good. Now, the arrow travels in an ark, so aim a little higher than the target." She reposition her arms and grunted as she pulled the string back.

"You made this look so easy," she grated, relaxing her arms from the strain.

"You're the one who said you wanted to learn archery," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be a smartass, honey, especially not to a woman with a potentially deadly weapon in her hands. That's lesson number twenty-eight, for future reference." Pulling the arrow back again, she aimed and let it fly. It locked itself into one of the outer rings of the target.

"Not bad…" he said in a faint amazed tone.

It was Neina's turn to smirk. "I'm usually pretty good and stuff like this. I'm a quick study." She took another arrow and cocked it. But just as she was about to let it go, her arm pitched and the arrow flew through one of the hedges.

"OW! WHAT THE HELL?!!"

Neina grimaced, her hand rubbing the back of her neck nervously. "Er, maybe I should stick with my swords…" Hisoka nodded, already edging toward the door which suddenly slid open.

"Hey guys! I was wondering, if you're done training for the morning maybe we could all go to lunch."

Neina, hearing angry curses coming round the side, smiled and walked over to the amethyst eyed man who had walked out. "Sounds great, Tsuzuki. Mind holding this for me?" She gave him the bow and bolted inside with a laugh.

Tsuzuki looked between her and the bow confusedly until Terazuma came crashing over the hedge with many vein marks in tow. "You!! I might've known!" he roared, holding the broken arrow which had obviously hit him in the shoulder.

"I-what-wait…NEINA!!!"

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Hee…vignettes are fun. Onward!!


	15. Or So They Say

Here's the second vignette for the week. R&R much appreciated

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"What are you talking about?! It was a great book!"

Neina sighed and shook her head. "I don't agree, Hisoka. The plot has been done a thousand times before and there is absolutely no character depth."

"There's plenty of character depth!" he grumbled, plopping back down into his chair and jerking the book open.

Neina's eye twitched just a little at her son's bratty behavior. _Who did he get that from? Hope it wasn't me._ "Look, we disagree. So let's just leave it at that, alright?"

"Whatever," he grunted.

Growling under her breath, she turned and stalked out. When she didn't immediately return, Hisoka began to feel guilty about how he snapped at her. She had merely made a comment that she hadn't enjoyed the book when she read it, and he had turned it into a feud. He did the same thing with everyone else, but this was the first time it had happened with her.

When he heard the door open, he turned to apologize to her only to see it was Watari. "Oh…Hey."

"Hey yourself. You okay? You sound awfully disappointed to see me."

"No, no. I just…I thought you were someone else."

Watari smirked. "Sounds like you have a problem. You drive Tsuzuki off with that attitude of yours again?"

"No!" he defended. But Watari's all knowing stare made the real answer sneak up into his mouth. "Not Tsuzuki...this time."

"Ahhh…was it Neina?" Hisoka blinked at him and he smiled rather ruefully. "I passed her in the hall a few moments ago. I thought it odd since she's usually hanging around you around now."

Hisoka sighed and closed the book (he hadn't really been paying attention to it for the last few pages anyway). "We had a disagreement." Watari sat and smiled encouragingly for him to go on. 003 fluttered from his shoulder to the boys, nuzzling his neck for extra support. "You…you all say we look alike, and act alike. But we're so different! We have different tastes!"

"Really? Like what?"

Hisoka opened his mouth, but his retort did not come immediately. "Um, books…and…uh…"

Watari chuckled. "Bon, how much do you _really_ know about her?" He held out his hand and the tiny grey owl flew back to his open palm. "I ask because it seem like she's the only one who ever tries to understand. In case you haven't noticed, she goads you into talking to discover what you like and dislike. But usually your answers are very blunt and short. It's like there's a large rift between you two and she has to shout for you to hear. Maybe she was hoping that by telling her own, you'd strike up an actual conversation and that rift would get a little smaller."

Hisoka looked down when he thought about that. _I guess…I don't give her a lot of choice in how to approach me._ "But…what if we are too different? What if we can't get along once we do learn about one another? What if…it just makes the rift bigger?"

The blond scientist scratched the side of his face in thought. "Well, I suppose that's always a possibility. But if you never try, how do you know? Is it better to never know, or to take a chance on something great?" Slowly the verdant eyed boy nodded. "And besides, it would probably best if you know what she's like."

"Why's that?"

Watari smiled devilishly. "They say that men fall in love with those who remind them of their mother."

A fiery blush erupted across Hisoka's face and neck. "What?! Who says that?!"

"**They **do. No one knows who **They** are, only that **They** are all knowledgable."

"Well, **_They_** are wrong this time! Who the heck would be attracted to someone who reminds them of their own mother…that's perverted!"

"Maybe, but everyone has a little perversion in them," Watari said with what could only be a wistful twinkle in his eye. Hisoka shuddered, keeping his hands as far from the mad scientist as possible.

Tsuzuki walked through the door with a folder in his hands. "Finally got our next case report from the chief! He decided to chew me out for the property damage on that last one…I may need to borrow some cash. Oh, hey Watari!" Watari waved as the amethyst eyed man took his seat. Before he could open the folder, he noticed the book on Hisoka's desk. "I remember that book."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I read it during one of my infirmary stints a long time ago," he opened the folder and started to skim over the contents. "I didn't like it very much. The story and characters weren't very interesting."

Hisoka dropped the book on his desk, surprising both men. "Uh, um, just read the report and then hand it over!" he covered, though they both noticed the mysterious blush around his cheeks.

Watari bid his farewell after that. A few hours later, when it was almost time to go and Tsuzuki had gone to make copies of the file, Hisoka looked up to the soft knocking at the door.

Neina smiled and came in. "Hi. Almost time to go?"

"Yeah," he replied. He wasn't quite sure where to go or how after that.

She stood awkwardly a moment before pulling out a book from behind her back. "Here. This one is one of my favorites. I thought you…I don't know, maybe you'd like to try it after you're done with that one?"

Hisoka looked at the book. It was old, bound in green leather with golden accents. The title was all but eroded away, so he wasn't sure what it was.

He took it anyway. "Thanks." She nodded and turned. "Uh, what did you like about it?"

"Pardon?" she turned, confused.

"What did you like about it, for it to be one of your favorites?"

Blinking, Neina smiled and sat in Tsuzuki's chair. "Well, for one thing, it has great characters. The main character is a thief who's forced into a deal with a demon to save his life as well as the lives of his friends."

"Really?" Hisoka looked at the book with new inerest.

"Yep! And the rest of the story is about him trying to keep the demon in check, eventually hoping to get rid of it. He meets a lot of interesting people and creatures along the way too. Oh, and the dialogue is really amazing! I mean, it's almost Shakespeare like." She motioned for him to give her back the book. Flipping through it, she smiled as if meeting another old friend.

"This is my favorite passage: _My heart, locked away, encased deep within a sea of frost and darkness, yearns for your light. The fire of your touch revives a beat long since muted for hate of the sound, fear of the power which it could bring if joined in harmony with one such as yours. I do not fear that power if I may share it with you alone. But if you cannot be that one, I beg you, venture no further into my heart. I would rather remember you as we are now, my most dearest love, than to possibly see your form twisted in my thoughts by hate and resentment. I would give my heart to you, as cracked and broken as it is, and trust to let you keep it in your grasp. To watch it fall and shatter again would ring in my last end."_

Hisoka sat, enraptured by the passion with which she read the words. Closing the book, she handed it back. "That passage always reminds me of your father and I. Before we confessed our feelings, I was so afraid he would brake my heart and we wouldn't be together ever again."

Hisoka nodded as she stood. "Well, I hope you like the rest of it. We'd better both go now. Goodnight, Hisoka."

"Wait!" she turned, startled once more. "Maybe, when I finish, we could…talk about it."

Neina blinked in surprise before smiling warmly. "I'd like that very much, Soka-chan!"

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Okay, another round of vignettes finished! Back to another big story. **Next**: Neina is asked to help Hisoka and Tsuzuki with a problematic case. But she has some qualms about where the case leads them too. What does a queen have to do with it? And what about that shadow?

**REVIEW**!! And **SUGGESTIONS** are appreciated as well. I'm running out of ideas for vignettes!

Oh, and sorry if these updates are kind of late. I've been trying to upload them for three days! I kept getting a bunch of error signals till now.


	16. Flowers and Dolls

Here we go! Lots of complications in this arch, so I hope I don't lose any of you.

Thank you **laustic, joykinz **(a new reviewer with a fun name!) and **Hiyami**!! I like your suggestion, but if I can do a Christmas vignette, it will probably be belated. This story's going to take a while. And thank you all for such sweet reviews! You all rock so hard!

YnM is not mine, so don't sue me, kay?

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Neina tilted her head in contemplation. "Salmon or beef…Hisoka, which sounds better to you?"

"Whatever gets this over with…" he grumbled. "Why did you agree to cook dinner for everyone?"

"I just got my own apartment away from the ministry! That's a cause for celebration, isn't it? Well, that and Watari hasn't been eating anything but fast food for the past two weeks, I'm worried about his arteries. Tatsumi isn't much better; he's been drinking too much coffee and keeping those long hours. You wouldn't believe the convincing it took to get him to come! And Tsuzuki…when does he need an invitation to food?" she laughed wryly. "Plus, when was the last time you all just, as you say now, 'chilled' and had a meal as friends instead of coworkers?"

Hisoka 'hmphed', but didn't deny what she implied. Smiling, she picked up and package of beef tips and they made their way to the checkout line.

"Oh, that's so nice to see," the middle aged woman behind the counter said as Neina gathered up the bags. "A big sister taking her little brother shopping with her. Are you two close?"

"He's not my brother," she smiled as Hisoka stalked to the exit with his hands in his pockets. "He's my son."

Hisoka ran back and grabbed her by the hand to drag her out of the super-market at lightening speed before the busy-body check out woman could register that answer.

Panting, he leaned against a building as Neina shifted the bags laden on her arms. "Don't do that!"

"Do what?" she asked, making sure that nothing had fallen out.

"Don't tell people you're my mother!" He winced at the hurt expression on her face. "What I mean is you look too young. You don't look any older than twenty, and people give us weird looks when you tell them."

"Why do you care what they think? They don't determine who you are, Hisoka honey."

"That may be," he sighed, "but it's just easier this way, if we say we're siblings or cousins or something. Less questions."

"But I'm proud of you, Soka-chan! If I could, I'd tell the whole world you're my son. In fact…" she set the bags down and straightened with her hands cupped like a megaphone over her mouth. "Attention everyone! This is my—!"

Hisoka quickly pressed his hands over her mouth. "Please don't do that…"

She frowned in disappointment but nodded. "Alright. But nothing can change the fact you're my son." She stooped to pick up the bags again, only to find Hisoka had grabbed half of them. He was blushing faintly, continuing forward without looking at her smile.

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Neina sighed and stretched in her new bed, in her new apartment, yawning softly. It was still dark out, but she knew the sun would be up soon. Her bedroom window faced the rising sun, a much nicer way to wake up than a harsh alarm clock. But she had an alarm clock as well, since sometimes the sun just wouldn't do the job.

The dinner had gone off the night before without much incident, aside from Watari and Tsuzuki polishing off the three bottles of wine with barely any help and having to be carried home by their respective partners. She laughed at the memory as she turned, not quite ready to get out of bed. Her hand touched something soft and she frowned. Opening one eye, they both snapped open in confusion. Sitting up, she brought her find to her face.

"An Avalanche Lily?" she croaked, her voice still groggy from sleep. Her favorite flower, one of them anyways, delicate with spindly petals and a long green stem. The petals were a luminous white and the stamens a soft yellow.

Looking around, as if the flowers origin could be found in her room, she noticed the window was open. Getting up, she padded over to the window and pulled back the curtain. There was nothing but the tree outside her apartment window and the faint ring of new light over the horizon. Frowning again, she carefully reached out and scanned the flower with her empathy.

'_Be happy…'_

She started at the message. She couldn't tell who it was from, they were masking their aura. But that one clear message entered her mind. Placing an empathic message onto an object was not easy, so whoever they were either went through a lot of trouble or knew a few tricks. All to tell her to 'be happy'?

Twirling the flower between her fingers, she smiled softly at the gentle scent radiating with message. Walking away from the window, a cloaked figure dropped from the shadows of the tree and ran off, away from her.

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"Man, Neina is a great cook! And her apartments nice too," Tsuzuki sighed in envy. "Do you think she'd let me have the leftovers?"

"I don't think there were any when you and Watari got through with it. I know there wasn't any wine left," Hisoka said blandly. Ignoring his partner's whines of protest, he opened the door and stepped in. The chief and Tatsumi were already waiting for them.

Hisoka sat in his usually spot and Tsuzuki took his. "Alright, we just need the last of you to arrive."

The two looked at one another. "We're both here, Tatsumi-san. Who's left?"

As if cued in, Neina came through the door. "You wanted to see me, Tatsumi? Kaichou? …guys?"

"Yes, come in and have a seat."

Closing the door behind her, Neina sat down next to the other two, sending a questioning looks to them. The shrugged minutely, saying 'Don't look at me; I don't know what's going on'. In return, both of them stared at the lily over her ear and she smiled bashfully.

"A new case has come to our attention," the chief said gravely, getting their attention back. "People are reappearing. That is to say, their souls have come to us ahead of schedule, like any unusual murders case, but they aren't apparently _dead._ Many are still showing up for work." There was a pause as everyone absorbed this stunning statement. "It's out of your jurisdiction, but we believe you are the ones best suited to deal with it. And that includes you, Neina-san." They all blinked in surprise.

"Me? I mean, I'm perfectly happy to help, but why do you need me?"

Kaichou shifted uncomfortably before taking the envelope under his hand and passing it to her. "Enma-daioh thought it best to explain it in this."

She took the letter and opened it cautiously. Reading over it, her expression changed from curiosity to shock to anger. Finally, with a cold gleam to her eyes, she ripped up the letter into confetti and tossed it in celebration of its own demise.

"Tell Enma 'When hell freezes over, and the devil gives me a free snow-cone'," She growled icily. Everyone moved slightly away before she turned her gaze on them.

"Neina, please reconsider—"

"There is nothing to reconsider," she said evenly. "I won't go to that place, not again."

Kaichou sighed, while the other men watched the exchange in perplexity. Even Tatsumi apparently had no idea what was transpiring.

"Very well. Tsuzuki, Hisoka, you Tatsumi and Watari will move out—"

"The hell they will!!" Neina yelled, slamming her hands onto the table, which shook violently. "Konoe Kaichou, you don't seem to be listening. If I'm not going there, what makes you think I'm going to let my son or anyone else from here go?"

Konoe looked at her very seriously, but she looked back just as solemnly. She would not budge in her resolve. Reaching under the table, he brought up a case and set it down. "The other agents tracked one of the suspects down. The confrontation actually turned violent and they were critically injured. But they managed to stop it. It turned into this however." He tossed whatever was in the case at her and she caught it one handed without flinching.

Opening her fist, she looked at the broken wooden doll. A look of horror dawned on her face as she examined it. "…no. It can't be."

"Enma implied you once knew someone capable of this."

She nodded, dropping the doll onto the table. "I did…a long time ago." With a sigh she shook her head. "When do we leave?"

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Hisoka and Tsuzuki examined the doll as they drove through the mountains. Tatsumi was driving, Watari was in the seat next to him, and the other three were in the back seat. The doll was a simple wooden doll, but the head was splintered apart like a bolt of lightening struck it. Across the trunk was carved the name "Minami Tsukuyomi", the name of the woman who had been doppelganger by this doll.

"So what's the deal with that thing anyway?" Watari asked. "I analyzed the hell out of it, but I didn't come up with much aside from the woman's hair being wrapped around it."

Neina glared at the effigy from the corner of her eye. "It's a doll-pleganger. You steal something with a good quantity of a person's spirit trapped in it and tie it to the doll with a curse mark on the head and their name on the trunk. The doll will then transform into a temporary clone of that person. Each one lasts for a bout 72 hours."

Watari whistled low in awe. "That sounds like one tough spell! So you know the person who did this?"

"No."

"But Kaichou told me—"

"I knew someone capable of it once. But this is a different person. I don't know who, the head is destroyed." She picked up the doll and dangled it by the arm like a piece of trash. "The head is where the curse mark goes, but each curse mark is unique. It holds the doll maker's orders and a small sample of his own spirit so that it will only obey his or her orders. Since the head is destroyed, I've got nothing to work off of."

"Then how do you it's not the same person, Neina-san?" Tatsumi asked.

Neina let the doll drop back into Hisoka's open hands. "Because he's dead." There was an awkward pause, mostly by the finality in her voice.

"Yeah," Tsuzuki interjected, slightly put out by the nonchalant way she said this. "But we've thought people we've fought before have been dead, and they end up having narrowly escaped." A vision of Muraki holding the gaping wound in his stomach flashed through his mind but he squelched it viciously.

"No, he's dead," she said sternly, lulling her head back against her head rest. "I know because I'm the one that killed him." There was a collective intake of air from the others as Neina closed her eyes and sighed.

"Oh...um, sorry…" he trailed off.

"Why? I did what I had to do."

Silence reigned for a while before Hisoka cleared his throat. "Are we near the hotel yet, Tatsumi? We already passed the town." He referred to the town a few miles back on the road. It was no Tokyo, but neither had it been set in the stone age. He had noticed several fast food establishments and electronics stores as they drove through.

"We should be there soon…oh! There it is now." Tsuzuki and Neina tilted in so that they were grouped near Hisoka's head and could see out the front window. Indeed, a very nice hotel was coming up around the bend in the road.

"Is that really where we're staying?"

"…or are there a bunch of shacks in the back you got at half-price?" Tsuzuki and Watari finished in a deadpan tone.

"For your information," the secretary replied testily, "we will be staying in the hotel. It isn't tourist season for this mountain range, so they were very reasonable with the rates. I even managed a private room for you, Neina-san."

Neina smiled softly. "Thank you, Tatsumi. That's much appreciated, considering the mood I'll probably be in most of this trip. I don't want to hurt anyone."

They gave a strained laugh, knowing she probably wasn't kidding.

It was almost nightfall, the drive having taken all day. They checked in and followed the concierge to their respective rooms. They were all on the fifth floor, all over looking the huge lush forest at the base of the mountains. They even had balconies to watch the sun set over the tree tops.

"The investigation officially begins tomorrow," Tatsumi said. "But until then, we should all get some rest." Nodding, they all went inside.

Tsuzuki immediately jumped on to his bed with a happy sigh and snuggled into the pillows. "This is great! It's so rare we get to stay in such nice places on our budget."

Hisoka shook his head but had to smirk at his partner's childish glee at their surroundings. "We'd get to stay in places like this more often if you were willing to give dessert every now and then."

"Gah! I'd rather sleep outside than give up my dessert!"

"I figured that be your response." He jumped suddenly and the amethyst eyed man sat up quickly.

"What's wrong?"

"I…I thought I saw something rush past the window," he muttered, pointing at the balcony window. "It was probably just a large bird or something." He shook his head at his paranoia. Neina's mood was affecting all of them in one way or another. She still had not said why she was adamant about not coming here, only that if the person was employing Doll Master magic that they would need the help of someone who had dealt with it before.

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Neina breathed easier, drying her hair from the shower. As soon as she had entered the room, she had opened the terrace window to allow the room to vent the stale air away. But the chilled air of nightfall made her turn back and head to the bathroom for a cleansing hot shower.

Wiping the condensation away with the towel, she frowned at her reflection. Beautiful, yes, but she never really felt that way. She was an outcast, not belonging in the world of magic or the world of humans. There had only been one place she had truly belonged, and it was gone now.

Changing into her nightgown, she dried her hair with a quick blast of hot wind and brushed it out. Deciding to turn in early she turned off the light and walked back out into the bedroom. She paused before walking to the bed however when she noticed something resting in the middle of her mattress.

_A Glass Lily?_ Picking up the flower, she examined it. Similar to the Avalanche Lily resting in a cup in the bathroom because she wasn't sure if she could do what it asked of her, this one was a deep burgundy with pale pink outlining the petals. It was beautiful, with a sweet fragrance. Reaching out, she carefully fluttered her empathy over it.

_Be safe…_

She blushed slightly at the tenderness in the message. Who would care this much about her? A cold sweep of air over her feet drew her attention to the open window. Approaching it tentatively, she looked out into the night. "Is…anyone there?" she asked.

There was no answer. She returned into the warmth of the room and closed the door. Before she latched it how ever, she opened it slightly once more. "Thank you. I'll try." Closing and securing the door, she crawled into bed with the new flower resting on her nightstand. The shadow that had waited on the empty balcony above her disappeared into the darkness.

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"So, what happened the last time you had to face someone with this power?" Hisoka asked the next morning at breakfast. They all sat in a circle around the table, eating heartily for the day ahead.

Neina glared as she sipped her tea. "I got captured by him." Setting the cup down, she reclined precariously in her chair. "He tried to turn me into a living doll. Remind you of anyone?"

They all glared and nodded. "Yeah, well, he wasn't as bad as that. But he did go insane towards the end and we had to take him out." She looked pensively into the milky depths of her tea. "Truth be told, I pitied him more than anything." Wiping her mouth with her napkin, she twirled the chair with a throw of her body and stood. "Everyone ready. The woods aren't going to search themselves."

They all stood and made there way out of the hotel and around the side where he paths began.

"Why do we have to search the woods?" Tsuzuki whined as the approached it's edge.

"Because," Watari replied, "the others tracked the dolls here. They were heading back to their master, so he must have a hide away here somewhere."

"Should we split up?"

"No!" They all started at Neina's yell. "You don't know you're way around here, you could all get lost if we did that."

"And you do know your way around?" Hisoka asked.

Neina winced and turned back to the front. "Unfortunately, yes I do. Just follow me, I have a pretty good sense of direction in cases like this."

The followed her in, still wondering why Neina was so moody in this place. It was like she was expecting something bad to happen. The woods seemed very peaceful though, with tall evergreens reaching high above their heads. Birds called softly in the distance and the scent of approaching winter was in the air.

Neina paused at a crossroads in the path. "This way leads up to the cliffs. We could get a good bird's eye view from there," she suggested, pointing down the right path.

"Where does the other path lead?" Tatsumi asked.

"Just deeper into the woods." Her tone was evasive, but no one was brave enough to press the matter.

"Then right it is."

Nodding, they veered right and after a few moments it began to steadily incline. By the time they made it to the shelf of the cliff, the men were all out of breath and Neina was perfectly fine.

"That's it, no more muffin Mondays, you guys snack too much."

Tsuzuki managed to lift his head to argue, but noticed that they were not alone. "Hey, someone beat us here." They all looked where he was pointing to see a dark-haired hiker standing at the very edge of the cliff.

Just as they all turned, he slowly tipped over the edge. They all gasped, but Tsuzuki was the one to rush forward and grab the back of his shirt.

"Wait, Tsuzuki, something's not right!" Hisoka and Neina yelled together. The hiker suddenly whirled and punched Tsuzuki in the cheek, sending him reeling.

"He knew we were coming! It's a trap!" Neina yelled, sending a wave of energy at the figure. Before it even hit, he divided himself into parts of the whole and reassembled off to the side of them. "He's a doll!" Indeed, the doll looked up and smiled, turning his forearms into giant knives.

Tatsumi sent a shadow rolling at him, and managed to pin down one arm and break it. But the rest of the doll rushed forward and scattered the group with a few swings of his remaining arm-sword. Neina summoned her own blades and rushed him, and again he scattered. This time he reformed right behind her, but she dodged as he brought his arm down in a high arch.

"Neina, move!" She looked up to see Tsuzuki, Hisoka and Watari with sutras in their hands. The sutras began to glow and a blast of white lightening shot straight for the doll. She quickly got out of the way, almost to the edge of the cliff, and the doll followed her movements too late. As it struck, the image of the human hiker fizzled and faded until it's true form of a giant wooden doll remained. It buckled, smoldering from the blast, and dropped to its knees before her. But just as suddenly as it dropped, it jumped up and jumped off the cliff.

"After it!" Watari yelled. "It's probably heading for it's master!"

"Don't move Watari! Or any one else," Neina said urgently.

"What? But why…?"

She stood and walked over to the rest of the group, careful to show that her swords were put away. "Because if any of us move too suddenly, I doubt the archers surrounding us will hesitate to turn us into pin cushions." Indeed, even as she spoke thirty archers dressed in official looking livery appeared as if from no where. They were surrounded.

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Alright I think that's a good place to stop. XD I can be mean sometimes, huh? R&R, I'm off to work on the next chappie!


	17. A Past of Shadows

Okay, here's where it starts getting really complicated, and I hope really good!

YnM is not my property. Insert something witty here.

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Hisoka gulped at the sight of the thirty or more archers surrounding them on the cliff. They were dressed in blue and white uniforms and their arrows were aimed at all of them. It was impossible for them to attack one without incurring the wrath of the others.

Neina suddenly stepped forward. "Captain of the Archers, show yourself! I am not in the mood to play."

Watari, Tatsumi, Tsuzuki and Hisoka were tempted to tell her to shut up, but that would require sudden movements that could be mistaken for aggression towards them. Even as they all thought this, one archer unstrung his arrow and stepped forward.

"You are Coureneina?" he asked.

"I'm Sakuya Courneneina Kurosaki. You've been sent to retrieve me, huh?"

"No, we have been sent to take all of you."

"Somehow how I'm not surprised," she sighed, running her hand through her banes. "Fine, lead the way."

The Captain nodded and motioned to the others. They relaxed their weapons and followed, half in front half behind, and began to lead them back down the path.

"Neina, what's going on?" Tsuzuki asked deparately. They came back to the crossroads and went down the one they had passed up.

"I'm sorry guys, this is my fault. It's because you were traveling with me," she said guiltily. The veered off the path and began to journey through the forest.

"But what's going on?"

"You know," Watari interrupted. "I've heard that there's a passage way in this forest that leads to where the Sorcery Empress reigns. But that can't be where we're going, right?"

She winced and grimaced. "Give the man a prize…" she muttered.

"YOU'RE KIDDING!" they all yelled.

"Quiet back there!"

They dropped their voices at the Captain's order, but continued to pump her for answers.

"What do they want with you?!"

"How did they know where to find us?!"

"Why do we have to come with you?!"

"What's going to happen?"

Neina sighed and held up her hands to stop them. "First of all, they track magic, and with all of that we shot out against the doll a five-year-old could find us. And you have to come with me because they found you with me, so I'm sorry again for this.

"As for what's going to happen, I have no idea. And what they want with me…well, if they don't try to kill me, it's a good day," she somehow managed to smile and they continued forward through the trees.

A stone arch was in a clearing before them. It was obviously centuries old with moss and ivy growing on it, but they passed through it without pausing since the archers before and in back of them had no intention of pausing. As the passed, there was a blinding flash and they were instead standing on the edge of an amazing structure.

The palace was obvious as the approached. Gleaming white, the castle towers rose up into the sky with paths interconnecting them. The gates were high and wrought in gold, but open to allow entry to everyone. The courtyard was a huge garden of a dizzying array of flowers. The different colors, designs and fragrances assaulted the shinigami, making their heads spin. Hisoka however did notice that as she passed, the flowers seemed to follow Neina like they were supposed to follow the sun.

Neina held her head high through all of it though. It was as if she truly didn't care what any of them thought of her. Maybe she didn't.

Hisoka clenched his fists as they moved. They hated her. He could sense the men's hatred for her all around him, but it was groundless. They had never even met her before, but they hated her! He was anxious for what this Empress would do to her.

_Hisoka?_ He started at the invading thought and cast is his eyes quickly to the woman next to him. _Hisoka, can you hear me? Just think your answer as clearly as possible, I'll hear._

_Yes. How…?_

_I'll explain everything later, I just have something to ask of you._

_What?_

_While we're here, tell no one you're my son. Don't say anything to anyone, and don't let the others mention it._

He gasped, but managed not to say anything out loud even in his shock. _What? Why? Aren't you the one who said you proud to admit to anyone I'm your son?_ he asked bitterly. He regretted it when he saw the sorrowful look on her face.

_Oh, Hisoka honey, under any other circumstances I would. But I can't, not here. It's the best thing to do right now, trust me._

He grunted, both mentally and physically, and refused to talk to her any further.

They passed through the great doors of the palace, which closed with a deafening bang behind them. The room before them was long with a thin strip of blue carpet leading up to a raised thrown of gilded gold. Approaching the throne, they received their first glimpse of the Sorcery Empress. She was beautiful, with red-tinted gold hair and hard olive green eyes that sent shivers down their spines. When her eyes fell on Neina she sneered and rose. Neina held up a hand that told the others to stay back while she continued forward to meet her.

"I see you have returned from the dead, Coureneina. And you haven't aged a year. How disappointing." She stepped down each stepped gracefully in her full gown until she stood before her.

Neina smiled at the snide remark and bowed deeply. "Thank you. It is an honor to once again be in the midst of your court, Empress Verdette Sorous. What has it been? More than the twenty years I was gone, of course." The others looked at the Empress in amazement. She looked no older than thirty, maybe less.

Her eyes narrowed as she circled to the side of the group. "Who are these men with you? Have you an entourage, now that you and your husband are separated?"

A muscle in Neina's jaw flexed, but she continued to force her smile. "I still consider myself happily married to Hokuto Kurosaki, highness. These are shinigami from the Judgment Bureau under Enma-Daioh's control. I have agreed to help them with a case in this area. Tatsumi Seichirou," Tatsumi bowed respectfully as his name was called. "Tsuzuki Asato," who bowed a little more awkwardly. "Watari Yutaka," an almost ballet like bow of grace. "And… Hisoka," Hisoka bowed, not waiting for his last name to be spoken since it probably wouldn't be.

"I see. Had you any intent to inform me that you would be near one of my gates?"

"I can assure you the thought never even crossed my mind. It's so easy to forget some of the places you built those stupid gates." The others tensed at her words, wondering what she thought she was doing.

"I see," she said contemplatively. "Well, considering you will be near one of my 'stupid gates', I expect to be informed of your activities."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, highness. This assignment is very urgent and important. We cannot inform you as well as see it through properly, so I must humbly decline your request."

The empress's eyes narrowed dangerously. "That was not a request, you insolent bitch!"

The shinigami tensed even more at her tone and words. Neina's smile was still perfectly in place. "The answer is still no. Even if it was a royal order, I would not put the lives of others at stake for your pettiness."

"Pettiness?" she hissed. "You have not changed a bit, have you? You are still that willful, sharp-tongued bastard half-ling I remember. Not even a half-ling, you are only a quarter, you are nothing!"

Her smile diminished slightly now. "And you have not changed either. What does that make you?"

A loud crack rang through the court. The men stared open mouthed as the empress retracted her hand and Neina turned her head back from recoiling. A bright red line of blood trickled down her cheek from where one of the empress's many rings cut her.

"What the hell is your problem?!" Hisoka yelled. Neina gasped and turned, about to tell him to stop. "What did she ever do to deserve this?!"

The empresses glided past her and approached him. With a wave of her hand, the others were forced back by an unseen power so that only he remained in the middle. Hisoka shivered, not just from the look she gave him but from the sheer maliciousness radiating off her. He cast his eyes down, afraid to see anymore. "Who are you to question me, boy?" She took out a kerchief and began to polish her blood-stained ring. "If you must know, she was born. That is her transgression against me, and the only one she ever needed to make to earn the wrath of my Queendom."

Putting the kerchief away, she narrowed her eyes and took in his appearance. "Why do you care anyway? So what if I call her a bitch?" Hisoka's fists clenched. "A whore?" He gritted his teeth. "A filthy half-ling? It's what she is."

His head snapped up in defiance, his eyes blazing. "I care because it's not true! I care because she's my _mother_!!"

A painful silence stabbed into everyone. The empress's eyes were wide in surprise, and Neina's in fear. She rushed at them, only to be propelled back by a sudden blast of power. Empress Verdette reached out hand fisted her hand in his ash-blond locks, fury scorching him at her touch.

"What did you just say?!" she roared. "What did you say?!!" She twisted her fist and he cried out in pain.

"Hisoka!!" Tsuzuki ran to try and help his partner but was thrown back harder than before. He stood up immediately and was about to make another run when Neina pushed her way through and wrapped her arms around the Empress's.

"Your highness, let him go! I said let him go, Verdette!" The Empress began shaking her arm, pushing and pulling both the woman and the boy. "GRANDMOTHER!!!"

The empress let go in shock and rounded on her. Throwing her arm, vines shot from the recesses of her voluminous sleeves and encircled the blond woman's throat. Raising her high off the ground, Neina gurgled a strangled cry and kicked out her feet. Her hands scrabbled at the vines, trying to pry them apart, but they only tightened at her attempts.

"What did you call me?" the empress hissed.

"G…grand…m-mother…" for a brief instant, the strawberry-blond empress saw her captive's visage overlaid with another of someone long ago. She gasped and released her hold on the girl.

Neina dropped to the floor, managing to fall into a crouch and then to her knees. She coughed, holding her throat, striving to suck air through her nearly crushed windpipe. Hisoka, Tsuzuki, Tatsumi and Watari ran to her, forming a protective ring between her and the stunned empress.

The empress's expression softened for the first time and she whirled. "You have my permission to search the woods and the outlying area to you heart's content," she murmured. "In two days I am having a masquerade ball. I expect you there in exchange for this privilege."

"What makes you think we're going to let you anywhere near her—" Neina put up her hand to quell their protests, shaking her head.

"I'll be there, highness," she croaked.

"Good. A vassal will deliver your costume the night of the ball. Till then, I do not wish to see you. Any of you." There was a swirl of harsh air around them and they found themselves sitting in the light snow on the edge of the town they had passed the other day.

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"Why did you agree?" Hisoka asked with barely contained anger. Neina rubbed the ring of red around her neck, gently sipping the hot tea Watari had ordered for her from the café. The all sat in a circle around the table, just like that morning, eating a late lunch. Considering the time, it was more of a dinner.

"I didn't have a choice," she rasped. "If I refused she would've made our investigation a living hell. Better to just go and get it over with than let that happen."

"But why does she want you to go?" Watari asked, pouring more tea into her cup to sooth her throat.

"Probably because she knows I don't want to go," she muttered. "Actually it's probably for a status symbol more than anything. Though disliked, I am still respected as a master sorceress, the only living 'Dragon' sorceress. Having me at a party would intimidate the hell out of anyone attempting a coup, which granny is always worrying about."

There was a slight pause as Neina sipped the tea and the others stared.

"Is she…" Tsuzuki began. Neina quirked her eyebrow, telling him to continue. "Is she really your grandmother?"

Neina smiled wanly as she set her cup down. "Great-grandmother, actually. And therefore Hisoka's great-great-grandmother. Oh…suddenly I feel a lot better," she said with a wicked laugh, which turned into a small fit of coughs.

"But then why did she treat you so harshly?" Tatsumi asked.

Neina sighed and blew a small green fire to the tips of her fingers. Placing them on the edge of her teacup, the fire traveled into the brew and turned it a light mint color with crackling energy. Taking a deep breath, she downed the entire cup in one swig.

"Gah!" she almost slammed the delicate cup down in disgust. "Tastes like French fried oranges and mint bacon!!" Watari, as the doctor of the group, and the others were surprised to hear the strength suddenly back in her voice. "Blech! But at least I can talk properly now." They watched as the mark around her neck faded away into nothingness. The scratch on her cheek disappeared as well in an almost shinigami like fashion.

"Now then, where to begin? I suppose the beginning is best." She settled into her seat with one leg under the other and hunched over conspiratorially. "A long time ago, my grandmother, the empress's only daughter, fell in love with a normal human. The old crowned crow is adamantly against mixed marriages, so she tried to break them up. My grandmother ran away though and married him." Neina smiled as she refilled her tea cup with normal, non-glowing tea.

"Then my mother was born. Spitting image of gran, as am I. That's why, try as she might, the empress can't bring herself to do lasting damage to me. I look like the daughter she lost. Gran gave up the part of her magic that made her and her children immortal when she married, choosing instead to grow old with the one she loved."

Tsuzuki and Watari sniffed, drying their eyes. "How sweet."

Neina looked at Hisoka. "That's why I told you not to reveal I'm your mother. I was afraid she'd hurt you to get to me. While I do look like her daughter, that doesn't mean she loves me. In fact, she sees me as a symbol of what took her daughter away from her." She suddenly smiled and tipped her head to the side jollily. "But that meeting wasn't all bad!"

"What do you mean it wasn't all bad?" Hisoka asked incredulously.

Neina grinned and suddenly pulled him into a hug from her seat. "You admitted I was your mother!! I'm so happy!! Nothing can bring me down now!"

The others laughed at her euphoric and his uncomfortable expressions. "I-I…"he sighed and patted her shoulder in defeat. She just grinned and gave one final squeeze before letting go.

They ate and drank in silence while Tatsumi excused himself to go and check for a bus back to the hotel. When he came back, he was not happy.

"We missed the last bus a few minutes ago. The next one won't leave till 9 o'clock!"

They all groaned, since it was only 6:00 in the afternoon. "Well, might as well make the most of it. Anyone need to pick up something they forgot to pack? Or look around?"

"I need some toothpaste," Tsuzuki said. "Water's not cutting it."

"Too much info, inu-baka. Anyone else? I'm going for a walk around the park nearby to clear my head." She stood and walked out of the café.

She paused on the sidewalk when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning, she was surprised to find Hisoka standing awkwardly before her. "Uh, can I join you?"

"Of course!" she smiled. They walked together into the park, following the stone path faithfully as the snow began to fall and the sun began to set. "Something you want to tell me?" she asked knowingly.

Hisoka gulped. "I…I did admit you were my mother, and…I did mean it." He could feel her smile more than see it and blushed. "But…but I'm not really comfortable with this. Not yet, I mean! Maybe…someday, but not now. I just…I'm still going to call you Neina…"

She stopped and he stopped as well, worried he had said something wrong. But she smiled and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Hisoka, I understand," she said softly. "After I lost both my parents and Sagara-sensei, I didn't open up to anyone for years. It's hard after being traumatized so much, I remember. Hell, it took me forever to open up to your father, and we worked together!"

Hisoka frowned at that. "Worked together…wait, was Hokuto…was my father part of the Dark Guard?!"

Secretly, Neina bristled with joy to hear him refer to Hokuto as his father, but simply smiled and nodded. "Yeah. He was my partner. Didn't I tell you?"

His mouth fell open and his stared at her with fish eyes. "Your partner?!"

"Is there an echo? Yes, my partner. I thought I told you this already. " (1)

"No! I think I would remember you telling me he was your partner in the Dark Guard!" He shook his head as if to clear it of the shock. "Is that you two met?"

Shaking her head, she rested her chin in her palm. "No, to be fair, the first time we met he was trying to kill me."

A sudden image of his holding a gun to Tsuzuki's back and calling him a vampire flashed through his mind. "Why?"

"He thought I was part of an organization that killed his friend so he attacked me. You see, he used fuda magic, like you. I think that's where that spell you used against Segadalus came from. It sounds like one he used." Hisoka's eyes widened and she nodded.

"Once that little mistake was cleared up, and we took out the real organization, who were a bunch of small timers by our standards, he joined the Dark Guard and was assigned as the partner they'd been trying to get me!" She smiled proudly and seemed to radiate excited energy just thinking about it. "While I was the 'Dragon of the West', he was the 'Tiger of the East'. Our captain called us 'The Path of the Sun'. Captain was a bit of an oddball. A genius…but definitely an odd ball. But that first meeting kind of set the tone for our partnership, 'cause we fought more than any other team," she laughed.

Why did that sound so familiar? "Then, how or why did you fall in love?"

Neina blushed and played with the edge of her scarf. "He was the first person in almost five years who made me laugh. He was always there for me even when I didn't ask. Sometimes especially when I didn't ask," she laughed again. "I don't know why I loved him, Soka. Even for empaths, that's a hard emotion to explain. I just…he made me feel that part of myself, the part I thought would always be gone, was there. No one ever made me feel so complete. No one ever will."

He looked at her, truly looked at her, for the first time when she talked about his father. She looked even younger, like a teenage girl in love. She loved him in a way that few ever loved another person, and he blushed when he realized he didn't even need his empathy to know it. That's how strong it was.

Suddenly, she leaned in and smiled. "I hope you find a love like that someday."

The tiny coloring in his cheeks erupting into a full blown capillary explosion. "I, uh, I'd better go see how the others are doing!"

"I'd like to continue walking for a few more minutes. You go on." He sped off before she even finished and she laughed to herself. _So cute! He makes it hard to resist teasing him._ The wind picked up, sending snowflakes spiraling past to join their brethren on the ground, and she took a deep breath of the biting cold. Turning, she walked further down the path. The moon above provided enough light to see by, but every hundred feet or so a gas street lamp made a pool of yellow light in the frosty ground.

As she walked, she thought of many things. Mostly of her past encounters with the cold Empress Verdette. Sometimes she thought of her grandmother, whom had died before she was born. When her mind circled around to her mother she allowed it t to wander further. She had been beautiful and kind, but very sad. Prone to bouts of depression, she often held her daughter and cried. '_I'm sorry Sakuya. I'm so sorry you had to be born like this.'_

Neina paused briefly in her reverie when she came to a rather large ravine whose edges were connected by a fallenIt seem she had accidentally wandered off the path during her musings. Shrugging, not really paying attention, she hopped onto the log and began to cross. Half-way, she cried out as her foot sunk into the half-rotted wood.

"Gah! D-dammit!" she cursed, trying to pull her leg out. She managed to pull it out, cut and bleeding a little from scratches, and set it carefully back on the log. _I am having the worst luck today! What's next? _The log cracked even more, and she was suddenly falling down into the ravine.

Her involuntary scream was cut off as two arms wrapped securely around her and she was suddenly lifted up and away from the ravine. The path of the ascent shifted and she felt her feet gently placed back on solid ground. Opening her eyes, which had been shut tight in anticipation of a painful impact with the ground, she was met with only black.

Pulling back, Neina looked up to see her savior. He was dressed head to foot in a black coat with silver fastenings. His hood was pulled down so low that she could not see any of his face, even as close as she was. (_author note_: he looks like he belongs to Organization XIII from KH2, if you need a better visual reference.) Ever so slowly he pulled his arms away and took a step back. She regarded him in confusion because she could sense absolutely nothing from him. It was like he wasn't even there.

"Uh…th-thank you." He nodded, but didn't say a word. She gulped, shifting from foot to foot nervously, and wincing when she put weight on the injured one. "Who…?"

Neina tensed, ready for a challenge, when he shuffled a hand into the recesses of his coat pocket and pulled out a…

"A calla lily?" He held out the flower to her almost desperately. Even though she could sense nothing from him, she gently took the stem between her fingers.

"Are you…the one who's been leaving me lilies?" He nodded again and motioned at the flower insistently. Sweeping her empathy over it, she could feel his message clearly.

_Be careful_…

She blushed and looked down. "I…haven't been really doing what you ask, have I?"

Reaching out, he brushed her banes away from her verdant eyes gently. She blushed at the tenderness and forgiveness that simple touch was able to convey. Her heart was beating a mile a minute for some unfathomable reason. Backing up, she shook her head minutely to return to reality.

"Um, thank you again. For helping me, and for the lilies." His hand remained raised for a moment, still reaching for her, before falling back to his side. Nodding, he motioned for her to follow and walked into the woods. He turned back however when he heard her suck in a breath with a hiss. Returning, he knelt down and examined her leg. She was about to tell him that she was fine, but he reached out and gently ran his hand over the skin. A ring on his hand lit for a second and she felt a warm sensation run over the scratches. When he moved his hand away, she saw that the wounds were no more. "Thank you...again."

Merely nodding once more, he set off back into the woods. She followed, clutching the flower close. He wove through the forest, at some point grasping her hand and holding it tight. She wanted to object, but found she took great comfort from this. As great as she had once felt long ago…

They stepped back onto the path. Neina looked around, recognizing it as being near the entrance to the park. Smiling, she turned and bowed, squeezing his hand.

"Thank you, I probably would've gotten lost without you. But who are you?" Digging in his pocket once again, he brought out a water lily blossom and held it out to her. "More flower talk, huh?" she muttered. "You must be a real hit with the ladies…" Cupping the blossom in her hands, she swept her empathy over it like she had the others.

_I will always be there for you._

Her eyes widened and she felt a serious urge to blush as much as her son would when handed that message. "So…your what, like my shadow or something?"

He titled his head slightly before nodding slowly. She laughed softly and shook her own. "Alright then, Shadow. How did you know I liked lilies so much?" He reached out and poked her playfully in the forehead. "Huh? Well, I guess my name does have 'lily' in one meaning…hey! How could you have known that?! It's in the dead language of Magus!"

Jerking in surprise, Shadow backed up and suddenly bolted. "Wait! I'm not angry, I just wanted to know!" But he was gone. Neina whined and sighed. She had felt safer when he was nearby.

_I felt almost…like I did with Hokuto. No! I can't think like that! I love Hokuto. Only Hokuto, in that way. Only…_

"Neina?"

Gasping, the lilies in her hand dropped from her grasp. _That voice…_

Turning, she felt her breath stop in her chest. A man stood between the next two street lights. He was tall with dark hair brown down to his shoulders. His eyes were sharp and the color of storm clouds and they crinkled slightly when he smiled.

"Neina, there you are," he laughed. She felt hot tears growing in her eyes and took a step forward.

"Hokuto?" He smiled and held out his arms in invitation. "Hokuto!!" She ran across the remaining distance and through herself into his arms. "Hokuto, Hokuto!!"

"My Neina…" he whispered tenderly. She smiled and pulled back enough to look into his eyes.

"Hokuto, how did you…?" The smile on her face slowly vanished as she looked into his eyes. The smile never left his and he tilted his head in question just like her husband would do. "You're not…who are you?" She gasped as she felt a sharp pain in her neck. Before she could pull away, the drug clouded her mind and she slumped against him.

From the shadows a man stepped onto the path and smiled. "Good job. I was worried she would get away for a moment."

Hokuto smiled, putting the syringe away and lifting the unconscious woman into his arms. "Thank you, master."

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And there! Another cliffhanger! Muahahahaha! I'm truly evil, I'm sorry. I'll try to get the next one out soon. Don't do anything desparate!!

(1) Originally, this conversation (or one of its ilk) took place in Turn of the Wheel of Fate, when Neina and Hisoka were standing outside the London eye together. But I cut that one. I can't remember why...


	18. Masquerade I

A double shot! I've been sick, so I had lots of time to go through and write it out between hacking up a lung and napping. If anything doesn't make sense this time, please inform me. It might've come out wrong with me being high on cold medicine.

Okay, for those of you confused (sorry, **Hiyami**!!) I'm going to try and clear it all up here. I type as I think, but it all makes sense in my head. Not saying much, considering how cluttered it is in there, but yeah.

Also, I know there hasn't been a whole lot of TsuSoka (Sorry **Saya89**). I'm trying, really, but…I don't have a lot of experience with romance, so I don't quite know how to write it. But I'll try, there's a scene I've been planning coming up. It's nothing concrete, but it's a start.

But thank you for the glowing review, **laustic!!** I was really worried I had just screwed that last chapter up. Sorry this took so long.

If it were mine…(walks off starry eyed)

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"Where the hell is she?!" Hisoka growled. It was ten minutes until their bus left and Neina had not yet returned. He stalked up the sidewalk to the park intent on finding her.

"Hisoka, I'm sure she's fine! Neina's a big girl, she can take care of herself."

"Like you?" he muttered.

"Hey, low blow!!"

Hisoka paused as they entered the park. Under a nearby streetlight was a huddled form lying on her side.

"Neina?!" They rushed forward and knelt by the unconscious woman. Tsuzuki turned her over gently. It was indeed her, slightly paler than usual and limp. He shook her as gently as he could.

"Neina! Neina, wake up!"

She winced at the shaking and groaned. Running one hand over her forehead, she opened her eyes and blinked. "Hisoka…? Tsuzuki?"

"What happened?" Hisoka asked anxiously. She sat up and took a deep breath, shaking her head gently. Then she pushed herself roughly away from him and stood up. Hisoka blinked, not only from the rude gesture, but from a strange emptiness he felt when he'd touched her.

"I…I'm not sure. The last thing I remember is walking down the path to meet you guys. Did I collapse?"

"Maybe the day finally caught up with you," Tsuzuki said gently.

"Hmmmm…maybe. Probably should get back to the hotel and rest." She walked a few feet before stumbling. Hisoka managed to duck under her arm and hoist her up with minimal effort. She was very light. But she once again dislodged herself from him with a grunt, surprising both men.

"Take it easy. We still have more investigating to do tomorrow."

"Yeah," Tsuzuki smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm sure our luck will change tomorrow."

Neina smiled and began walking towards the exit. "Yes…I'm sure our luck's about to change."

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The Doll Master smiled as he carved his next creation with loving hands. His other children were displayed proudly around him on shelves and pedestals. Though the room was dark, they were given spot lights to highlight them. China dolls, marionettes, teddy bears, and of course the wooden dolls waiting to be put to use. Then there was his latest acquisition, sitting in an opulent oaken chair amidst the others.

His straying eyes were brought to attention by the ringing of his phone. Picking it up, he pushed stray strands of his wavy brown hair back. "Hello? Oh, hello Doctor! No, I'm afraid I'm not quite done with the repairs to your china doll just yet. I've been a bit busy with my own project." He stood and walked over to his collection. "I just got a brand new doll that I think you would love. She's quite lovely."

Neina stared blankly back at his smirk. Green eyes were glass like and lifeless, devoid of their former fire. Her wrists were strapped to the armrests of the chair, as were her ankles to one another. But you couldn't see her ankles for the full skirt of the dress she was wearing. It was black, a deep dark black, with deep red ribbons and satiny material. It was cut like a Victorian china doll's gown. Her long golden hair was down with a black ribbon in the back.

"Of course, I had to trade for her. Without their knowledge. A very good copy though, minus a few personality changes. They shouldn't notice until it's too late. Almost as good as the one I used to lure her. Ah, now you know what I'm talking about, eh? Good thing my father kept a few locks of that blasted man's hair at the time. And the information my first doll collected from her subconscious when I had it attack them helped as well. Otherwise it never would've worked. Ah, I'm keeping you from your own games? Well, I'll have the repairs done by tomorrow and I'll send it to you. And maybe I'll let you play with mine sometime. She really is very beautiful. Goodbye, Doctor."

He hanged up his phone and tilted the blonde's head up with the tips of his fingers. "You probably don't remember me, Miss Haguro. Ah, forgive me. Its Mrs. Kurosaki now, isn't it? The truth is we've never actually met." He released her chin and sat in his work chair again, turning his back to her. "You killed my father, the original Doll Master. But as you can see, I've studied all his techniques and have even improved on them. They were enough to fool you." He flung his hand to a nearby corner, where his Hokuto doll was slumped and inoperative.

"But don't worry, it's not revenge I'm after. Well, I should say it's not my prime objective. No, I have something much more…chaotic in mind. And you are a key piece to that plan. Both you and your new twin. Revenge will just be a bonus!" He laughed, and stabbed his chisel into the wood of the table with a manic grin on his face. "Soon…soon I will be powerful enough to be a god!"

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"She's going to be okay?" Tsuzuki asked Watari as he stepped back into the room.

"Yes, she checks out fine. Said she's just tired. And a little moody, too. She didn't even smile once, just gave me short terse answers." He harrumphed. Usually she was very friendly, especially with all of them. "But physically, yeah, she's fine."

"Good," he breathed.

"Well yes, that's good…"

"What do you mean?" Hisoka and Tatsumi asked suspiciously.

Watari waved an official looking parchment in his hands. "A bird of paradise delivered this a few moments ago. Evidently, the five costumes for the masquerade will be delivered around five in the afternoon the day of the party."

"Five?" the other three shinigami asked.

The scientist smiled wanly and nodded. "A gown and mask for Neina, and four tux's with masks for us."

"What?!" the secretary and the empath face faulted.

"We get to go too?" Tsuzuki sounded all too happy about this development. "Dancing and food! Yay!"

"No, not 'yay'! I don't want to go anywhere near there again," Hisoka hissed.

"Well, Neina said she'd actually be happy if we came. Evidently she's not very comfortable at these sorts of things."

"Neither am I!"

"I'm afraid it can't be helped," Tatsumi sighed. "If we want to stay on the empress's good side, it would be best to comply with her wishes. At least until we're finished with this investigation. More people even disappeared while we were supposed to be investigating today."

"But…"

"No buts, Kurosaki. Now, after a day like today, I think it best to get a good night's sleep. Good night."

"Good night," they all echoed, some in lighter spirits than others.

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Tsuzuki yawned and stretched when sunlight filtered in through their windows. Though he did want more sleep, he found it was impossible. For once he was fully awake in the morning. Looking over, he wasn't surprised to see Hisoka still curled on his side with the blankets wrapped around him like the folds of a cocoon.

Standing, he padded across the carpet to the side of his bed. He tilted his head as he looked down at the young blond. Sleep was one of the few times he had a peaceful look to his beautiful face. It was this face that the amethyst eyed immortal was contemplating.

_He does look a little like his mother. Especially around the eyes._ He placed a hand over his heart. _So…why do I only feel like this when I see him? Neina does nothing for me, but Hisoka…he makes me feel…complete?_

Reaching down, he brushed a few strands of wheat colored hair away from the boys face. Though gentle, the gesture caused the boy to groan and shift onto his back. Tsuzuki unconsciously followed the movement, his eyes falling onto his partner's lips. He gulped, trying to tear his eyes away. But ever so slowly he was descending down, their mouths on a collision course.

Mere inches from his face, Hisoka's eyes cracked open. Tsuzuki paused for a brief second as he looked into them, once again marveling at the color, before jumping back and landing with a loud thump on his own bed.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I swear, I didn't mean anything, I just—" He gaped as Hisoka grunted and turned over, apparently falling back asleep. "H…Hisoka?" There was no answer, just the sound of even, deep breathing.

Tsuzuki blinked before falling back and covering his face with his hands. _What the hell was I doing?! Bad Asato, very bad!! Neina would kill me if she knew what I almost…_ Groaning, he stood and decided to make his morning shower a little colder than usual.

Hisoka opened his eyes slowly at the sound of the water running. I had dreamed something strange, something about Tsuzuki…but he couldn't remember what it was. Yawning as he got dressed and combed through his hair, he knocked on the door to the bathroom when he heard the water stop.

"Oi, Tsuzuki? I'm going to go ahead and head down for breakfast. Meet you there?"

"Uh, y-yeah. I'll see you there."

The boy frowned at his partner through the door. "Is everything okay? You sound kind of troubled."

"I'm fine! Perfectly fine. Uh, order me a cup of coffee when you get down there, kay? And you might want to go now, because I didn't bring my clothes in with me and in about a minute I'm going to walk out there wearing nothing but a towel and a smile."

Hisoka blushed and growled. "You are such a perv sometimes!" He left without another word and Tsuzuki rested his head against the fogged up glass of the bathroom mirror.

"You have no idea."

-----------------------------------------------

"Alright, everyone ready?" Neina asked as they set back out over the path. She sounded bored and rather disinterested, unlike the other times they she helped an investigation. "Since we can go through the woods now, I thought we'd head deeper in."

"Sounds good," Tatsumi agreed and the others nodded. Neina walked ahead of them, casting her gaze left and right every now and then. They walked for hours, everyone on guard in case of another attack. They stopped for lunch eventually, but it was right back to walking and searching afterwards.

It was around then that Watari noticed something suspicious. He could have sworn they had passed that same tree more than once. As discretely as possible, he tacked a slip of paper to one of the upper branches. About an hour later they passed under the same slip.

_Something's not right…_

"Well," Neina said with a sigh. "It's getting dark and we'll have a full day tomorrow. Maybe we should head back."

There were a few muttered consents and she led them back onto the path to the hotel.

"Neina, can I talk to you?" Watari called from the front steps. She arched her eyebrows but trudged back down to stand before him.

"What is it Watari?"

"I was just wondering how you could have such a great sense of direction in such a confusing place. It seemed to me like we were going around in circles." The scientist watched her face carefully and allowed himself an inner frown when her jaw tensed.

"Oh, years of practice. But a lot of the paths loop back on themselves, you know?"

"Huh?"

"Yeah. I know it might've seem to someone as observant as you that we were going in circles sometimes, but the paths just curve around to meet onto another path. Sometimes it's like a huge maze, I wouldn't recommend going alone."

"I…see. Well then, good night." Watari bowed slightly as he passed her into the hotel. _Something's still not right about this,_ he thought. _I just have a bad feeling. And I trust my feelings._

He missed the glare that the Neina-doll gave his back. _That one could be a problem._

---------------------------------------------

The next day was as uneventful. They searched in the morning and until early afternoon before returning to the hotel. When they did return, they were surprised to find white boxes on each of their beds.

"Those must be our costumes!" Tsuzuki said happily, bounding over in semi-inu form.

"How did they get in?" Hisoka muttered. He had made sure to lock the windows and balcony door before they left.

Tsuzuki opened his and whistled low in appreciation. "Wow! The empress may be a moody old bat, but I'll give her credit for her fashion." He stood and began unbuttoning his shirt. When he noticed that his younger partner had turned away with a blush he gave a strained laugh. "Uh, right. I'll change in the bathroom, you change out here."

Hisoka sighed in resignation of his fate and opened his own box. His face faulted at what he saw, and he had a serious urge to commit arson upon the offending article, but knew that even that was most likely futile. He was doomed to play Cinderella for the night.

Tsuzuki cracked the door to the bathroom open. "Okay, I'm coming out. You decent?" _Please say yes, or god help me I will have a very naughty picture invade my head._

"Yeah, come on in," came Hisoka's slight growl. Tsuzuki stepped out and they both held their breath.

The taller man was dressed in a deep black suit reminiscent of a 17th century Venetian masquerade. It the cuffs and cravat were a deep indigo that picked up the purple of his eyes. Silver patterns swirled across the black of the coat which reached down to his knees. The vest was dark blue with silver fastenings. The pants were simple black silk trousers that were tucked into black boots. He held his mask in his hand, which was a simple eye mask with the top silver and the bottom black with invading silver roots.

Hisoka was similarly dressed, but in near opposite colors. His coat was a yellow-hued ivory that picked up the pallor of his skin flatteringly. It was trimmed in cold piping and cold fastenings. His cuffs, cravat and pants were white but his vest was a deep red. His boots were the same ivory as the coat. The mask was resting on his bed, another eye mask. This one however was decorated in gold and red and dropped low around the cheekbones.

Neither one could take their eyes off each other. It felt as if time had also stopped breathing with them.

"You…look amazing…" Tsuzuki said quietly.

Hisoka blushed and finally dropped his gaze. "Thank you. You…I think 'dashing' is a good word for that get up." He tried to sound condescending or like he didn't care, but the blush once again gave him away. Tsuzuki smiled and walked over to him.

"I can't wait! Dinner and dancing…why can't we have cases like this more often?"

"Feh! I have to disagree."

"Why?" he asked as if he had just admitted to blasphemy. "We get to party all night! And while we're supposed to be working no less. I call this a once in a blue baboon opportunity."

Hisoka sweat dropped and shook his head. "The saying is 'once in a blue moon', you baboon baka. And just because you like to party doesn't mean everyone does."

"Oh, right, your empathy…" Tsuzuki rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "Well, maybe if you just throw yourself into the party, you won't notice! It'll be more like background noise. Just mingle and dance."

The boy narrowed his eyes. "I don't mingle, and I definitely don't dance."

"Come on! I bet you'd like it if you tried it."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"For me?" The blonde flinched and didn't answer this time. Neither did he look at his partner, who was currently turning the dreaded puppy dog eyes on him. "Here, I'll teach you!"

"What?!" Hisoka was temporarily stunned and therefore didn't fight back in time when Tsuzuki grabbed his hand and led him to a relatively clear area of their room. A rare occurrence considering how often Tsuzuki tossed his clothes and other belongings about. "No, let go Tsuzuki!"

"Hisoka, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just going to teach you how to dance. Just a few steps and I promise to never bring this up again." The boy grimaced, but turned away and snorted. "Is that a yes? Great!" Tsuzuki fixed his posture and took the young-man's hand in his the more functional way.

"Okay, lesson one: stand up straight." Sighing, he straightened and tried to ignore how warm his partner's hand felt around his. "That's good. Now put your hand here," he patted just above his hip.

"That's it, I'm out," he said, trying to walk away.

"Soka-chan!! It's just dancing, there's nothing bad about it. Pleeeeease?" Hisoka tightened his jaw and returned to his position. Blushing madly he placed his hand just above his best friend's hip. The man's brain then went blank.

"Tsu? What comes next?"

"Huh? Ah! Well, I put my hand here," he placed it on Hisoka's shoulder. "And now we take one step back. Good, and to the side…forward…back…around…good! Have you danced before, Hisoka?"

The boy shook his head, keeping his eyes on his feet in fear of missing a step or stepping on the other man's foot. "No, no one's ever tried to teach me before."

"Well, you're a natural then! Except," never missing a beat the amethyst eyed man took his hand that was on his shoulder and tilted his head up. "You need to look at your partner, not your feet. You're actually more likely to miss a step or mess up if you don't."

"I…I see," he muttered. _Why is my heart beating so fast suddenly? We're just dancing, and pretty slowly at that. But…dancing feels a lot more natural than I thought it would._

Tsuzuki's eyelids lowered as the circled around the room lazily, as if dancing in a dream. "Really," he continued quietly. "You're good already. I'm impressed."

"Maybe…I just needed the right teacher." The elder's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Both stopped moving, but still felt as if they were dancing on a breathless wind. Ever so slowly he leaned down, and the other pushed up…

The door flew open with a loud bang and a "Hey guys!! Check me out!" from Watari. (_A/N_: blame him, not me! He's the one with bad timing!) The two men quickly moved away from one another, both blushing profusely now. "Whoa. Did I come at a bad time?"

"N-no, Watari. Uh, Tsuzuki was just showing me how to dance."

"Oh I see." Watari took off his mask and smirked. He was dressed in a silk diamond patterned coat of black and orange with a black vest and white shirt beneath. The trousers and boots were also black. His mask was painted to look like it was made of bronze and was in the modeled after the theatrical humor mask. His hair was tied back with a bronze colored ribbon with amber beads strung on the end.

"Wow, you look cool!" Tsuzuki said cheerfully. He was sincere, but also trying to dodge the round of questions he was sure the scientist was already formulating.

Watari grinned. "If you think I look good, wait until you see…Ack! Tatsumi, get in here!" He disappeared back out into the hall and returned dragging a rather reluctant secretary.

Tatsumi's coat was a blue that brought out his eyes intensely. An underlying of flame like swirls coursed through the fine threads of silk. The vest was dark grey with silver trimmings like the coat's, whose buttons appeared to be sapphires worked in silver. The trousers were the same dark grey and the boots were black. His mask was the theatrical drama painted in a steel grey.

He grimaced under their stunned scrutiny and grunted. "If we may please collect Neina and find a subtle way out of here now."

They nodded, still gaping, and followed him out into the deserted hallway. Knocking on the door, there was the sound of a small shuffling of material before it swung open. All men present nearly lost their balance at the vision that greeted them. Neina's dress was a complicated contraption of red, gold, and ash grey. Layer upon layer created a full skirt around her hips and legs, then hugged her tightly in the corset fashion around her sternum. Ash colored gloves ran from her hands up to her biceps. Her hair was done half up in curls, half down in waves and held with pins of garnets clustered together in the shape of red roses. Her lips were stained a deep burgundy and she had eyeliner traced around her upper lids. Her mask was a full face mask that looked like it was made from porcelain and looked like a harlequin doll's face.

"Yowza!" Watari jibbed with a grin. Neina smiled back tightly and curtsied to them.

"Ready to go then? Okay, follow me. I know the back way out already." She whisked down the hall in her skirt, acting as if she were perfectly used to such a flamboyant style. Tatsumi and Tsuzuki followed and Watari was close behind. But the last lingered and watched the woman's receding back.

"That's weird…" Hisoka muttered.

"What is?" Watari asked, pausing.

"Well, the other day she was dreading this thing. Now she seems almost excited to go. She hates those big skirts too, she told me one time. And she didn't make one comment about how _we_ looked. I was scared that she was going to smother me or something, but she didn't even blink! That doesn't seem like her."

Watari nodded as they followed at a slower pace behind the others. _So I'm not the only one who noticed. Something is not right here._

-------------------------------------------

Okay, move to the next chapter now!


	19. Masquerade II

Here's the next one, like I said!

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Dollmaster reached into his pocket when the cell phone went off. Pressing it to his ear, he smiled. "Ah. Very good. I'll be there soon. Hmmm? Well, if anyone gives you trouble, take care of them. The only surprises I want are the ones I'm giving."

He snapped the phone off and stood. "Well, I bid you adieu, my pretty doll," he smirked. "I'm now going to go and cause a little chaos, become a supreme magical overlord, and have you blamed for all of it." Sweeping past, he paused and snapped. The Hokuto doll shook and stood. "Come. You break tomorrow, I might as well get some last use out of you."

"Yes sir," he replied emotionlessly. He followed his master out the door, turning off the lights as he did. Neina, still stripped of her consciousness, merely closed her eyes now that there was nothing to see by, if she could understand what she was seeing. She didn't even flinch at the sound of scratches at the nearby window before it swung open. Her protective Shadow dropped silently to the floor and quickly stalked over to her.

Lifting her head with gentle fingers, he lightly patted her cheek. Her eyes slid open, but stared at him vacantly as they had the Dollmaster. Growing tense, Shadow retrieved a vile from his belt. Swishing the contents around, he pushed her mouth open and uncorked it. He trickled the concoction gently into her mouth, tilting her head back even more and gently rubbing her throat to make her swallow. She did and almost immediately her eyes snapped back into focus. She coughed and spluttered, pulling at her restraints.

"Wha-what the hell?!" she spat, looking around. "Where am I? What happened?" She looked down and almost screeched. "What am I wearing?!"

Shadow placed a hand on her shoulder and she looked up. She blinked at him staring even as he knelt down. He flipped up her skirt despite her protests and began to work at the restraints around her ankles. When they were undone he rubbed them a bit to get the circulation flowing properly. Standing, he undid both her wrists restraints but allowed her to rub them herself.

"So…what happened?" Shadow gestured around them widely. "Dolls…? Ah! There was a doll that looked like Hokuto! He tricked me!" Shadow nodded and grabbed her hand. "Huh? Hey, wait!" He began dragging her away. "I said wait! Where's the fire?"

Letting go, he jumped out the window in a single bound. Neina gasped and rushed to look down. Though the dark of night made him nearly invisible, she could barely make him out three stories below. He gestured to her that he was ready to catch her.

"You can't be serious," she called down. He motioned more urgently and she sighed. Sitting down, she swung her legs over the side of the sill and pushed off. She eased her downfall with a light levitation spell but she still felt relief when strong arms caught her bridal-style and set her back down. But the moment her feet touched the ground he grabbed her arm and sped off again in the direction of the woods.

"Will you please tell me what the big rush is?! It's rather frustrating when you don't talk! Just drop you shields and tell me mentally or something." He seemed to tense, but made no action except increase his speed. Neina had to pick up the annoying skirt with he free hand to keep up.

He led her through the woods without pausing. The only time they did stop was at their destination: the Empress's palace. While Neina caught her breath, Shadow pointed to the roof of the huge structure.

"You want me to get us up there?" A nod and she shrugged. "Hold on tight." She pushed off from the ground, and they glided through the air as if pulled on invisible strings. Landing on the roof, he tugged her more gently over to a glass dome. She walked over and gazed down through the glass. "The hell?! The masquerade?! How long was I out?"

Though a bit fretful at her misplaced time, Neina's attention was drawn away from her companion as a figure in red made her way to the Empress…

-------------------------------------------------

The guests were all dressed in attire similar to their own, although some features like horns or whiskers or tails were not removable by any means. As they strolled through the front gates, they couldn't help but be awed by the grandeur of the ballroom, decked in gold and ivory and precious jewels across the ceiling.

"Hello!" a young cat-girl chirped. "I'll need to see your invitations, please." They presented the envelopes from each of their jackets and she checked each carefully. "You four are shinigami? Guardians of Death?" The men nodded. "Well, I must ask you to please drink this." She picked a tray off of a nearby table and presented it to them. They each took one of they silver shot glasses quizzically.

"Why?" Tatsumi was the first to ask.

"It's a power dampening potion. I'm sorry, but shinigami are on the list of those who must drink this before entering. It just temporarily restricts your power output so that you can't use any kind of attack magic. Psychokinetic or other telepathic capabilities will still be functional, so it shouldn't effect anyone's equilibrium. And it only lasts for twenty-four hours."

"What?! Why do we need to drink that? We aren't planning on causing trouble."

"We never assumed you did, sir," she said in a subdued tone. "But one year the empress invited a Guardian of Death and he got really drunk and started a fight with a wizard. It took forever to repair the ballroom after what his familiars did to it."

The others turned their gazes to Tsuzuki who looked back annoyed. "This is the first time I've been here, thank you very much."

"Just please drink the potion and I can allow you all to enter."

Sighing, they each down the potion. It is not a pleasant feeling to have your power reserves suddenly corked, but they shook it off and followed the rest of the guests inside.

Neina was regarded like she was a ghost and there were many murmurs erupting across the room when she entered. The woman (doll) just rolled her eyes and placed the mask on.

Watari, still suspicious, gently pulled her aside out onto the huge veranda on the other side of the ballroom a few moments after their arrival.

"Is something wrong, Watari?" she asked in a bored tone.

"Yes. You."

"Hmmm? Whatever could you mean?" she tried to speak sweetly with a smile.

"Cut the crap. You're not Neina, not the real one, are you?"

The doll's smile vanished. "Very observant. But unfortunately for you, I'm already about to achieve my goal." A snap of her fingers and Watari was suddenly taken from behind by several un-morphed wooden dolls. They forced him to the ground, covering his mouth. "I've been waiting for someone to do that for a while," the Neina-doll said maliciously. "You just wait out here for a while. I've got to go take care of something."

She swept back in, ignoring the scientist's struggles against the mass of dolls, and closed the doors behind her. Watari growled, kicking his legs and bucking to try and shake the wooden figures off. One of them roughly pushed his head down so that his cheek smashed against the stone floor.

_Dammit! Why did I have to let my guard down for that one second?! If only I could use a spell! Stupid power dampening potion…_ A buzzer went off in the genki scientist's head like it always did when he was struck with inspiration. Stilling, he concentrated all of his energy into his thoughts.

Hisoka was leaning against the wall, watching as Tatsumi managed to strike up a conversation with a stoic wizard. Tsuzuki was holding several conversations at once, a veritable life of the party. Despite the older man's encouragement, he merely preferred to remain on the sidelines and watch. It was less of a strain on his mind.

_Hisoka!!! _The boy gasped and put his hands to his head as the yell echoed through his mind. _Hisoka, can you hear me?! Neina told me I might be able to communicate with you like this in an emergency! But not the Neina with us, the _real _Neina!_

Hisoka tried to concentrate his thoughts into a stream in the direction the other thoughts were coming from like he had done with his mother. _Watari? Slow down, I can't get what you're trying to say. And stop yelling!_

_Sorry. But this is a code red! The Neina that came here with us is not Neina! It's a doll! She's going to do something bad, she said this was part of a plan! You have to stop her!_

Hisoka quickly looked around the room. It all made sense. Why Neina had been acting differently, why she felt different, why she seemed so eager to come here all of a sudden. It all made sense!

_What about you?_ he asked urgently.

_I'm fine for now. A bunch of other dolls jumped me when I confronted her and now I'm pinned down and powerless on the deck outside._

_You call that fine?!_ He almost said it out loud but managed to stop himself. Spotting Tatsumi and Tsuzuki now together talking, he rushed over.

"We have a problem. Where's Neina?"

"I don't know, I sort of lost track of her. What's wrong?"

Hisoka shook his head. "It's too much to explain right now and truth be told I don't know all the details. Tatsumi, Watari is in trouble. He's out on the deck."

"What?! What happened?"

"I told you, it's too much to explain right now! Go help him, let him do it. Tsuzuki and I need to find Neina. Just trust me!"

The kagestukai nodded and marched off towards the doors leading outside. Hisoka and Tsuzuki split up to find the imposter Neina.

The boy spotted her first as she walked gracefully up the room to where the empress was receiving her guests. The elder woman stiffened and pulled her face into a frown when she saw her.

"Good evening," she said tersely.

The doll grinned wider and curtsied. "For me, yes." From the recesses of her bodice she pulled a curved knife. "For you, I'm afraid not!" She lunged, but was suddenly and violently pushed out of the way by Hisoka. The knife clattered away and was scooped up by a surprised shocked Tsuzuki.

The blonde stood over the copy cat who glared up at him venomously. His fists shook at his sides. "Where is she?"

The doll smiled and stood, dusting off her skirt. "Who, Hisoka honey?"

"I'm not playing games! Where is my mother, you damn doll!?"

_Doll?_ Tsuzuki stepped to his partner's side and watched the woman in front of them carefully. "I'm guessing this is that complicated trouble you were talking about?" He nodded. "Great." He turned his attention back to the doll, who was staring at the knife still in his hands. "Okay, whoever or whatever you are. You've been found out, so why don't you give up? You're out numbered."

Doll Neina smirked. "Oh, you think so?" She clapped her hands and suddenly several masked members of their audience removed their masks. There were several screams as chaos broke loose, faceless porcelain dolls suddenly growing blades for forearms. "Now who's outnumbered, Tsuzuki-san?"

"Very good, my pet." The doll looked up and smiled as a cloaked figure in a silver mask stepped forward.

"Thank you, master. But I'm afraid they have the knife you gave me now."

"No matter, we'll get it back." He gestured and the other dolls swarmed forward to tackle Tsuzuki to the floor.

"Tsuzuki!" Hisoka made to help him when he was suddenly thrown back by two other dolls and pinned to the floor. He struggled to pitch his assailants off, but they only tightened their grip. "Get off of me!!"

A cold laugh caught his attention and he gulped seeing the doll Neina looming over him. "Don't struggle so much, son. You might hurt yourself." Her nails elongated into five individual daggers and she grinned manically. "You're a shinigami, so I know this won't kill you. But that won't stop the pain."

Retracting her hand, she aimed for his chest. Just as she was about to strike, the sound of breaking glass from above was heard. Hisoka stared open mouthed as a black mass descended from a broken dome and landed in the middle of the room only a few feet away. The black cloak fluttered away to reveal Neina, dressed like a Victorian doll, glaring at the doll with a look that could kill a normal man dead. Behind her stood a man in the dark cloak, also standing firm with her.

"Get away from him, you bitch!" she snarled. The hatred and blood lust she emitted was almost tangible.

"Ah, so you've escaped," Dollmaster said. "Not surprising I suppose, given your reputation."

With one flick of her wrist the man was hurled back by a blast of air. "Shut up! I'll deal with you later." She never took her gaze off her doppelganger, who slowly backed away from the blond haired boy. "Now release Tsuzuki. I said now!" She swiped her hand through the air in an ark, breaking each of the dolls pinning the brunette down. He sprang back up, scrabbling towards his partner. "Tsuzuki, Hisoka! Tatsumi and Watari are locked out. Go let them back in while I deal with these two."

"What about this?" Tsuzuki held up the dagger, which he had managed to keep out of their grasp.

"Do they want it?" He nodded. "Then don't let them have it! Now go!"

The tone in her voice left no room for argument and they rushed to the doors to let their friends in. Both ran back in looking rather frazzled and put out.

"Sheesh! These things are strong for dolls, especially without our powers. Oh, Neina's back!"

"That is the real her, right?" Tatsumi asked hopefully.

"Yes," Hisoka said certainly. "It's her."

Neina and her double stood facing each other, staring the other down. "You have some nerve, you know?" the doll huffed. "Things were just getting good."

_Man, what did he do to my personality to make me like this?_ She took a step forward only to stop dead when another doll joined her.

"Neina, don't cause so much trouble!" the Hokuto doll chastised. Neina groaned, wondering if she could attack something that resembled her husband so much. She could feel the difference, but it was still hard to overcome sight.

Shadow suddenly stepped forward, hand diving into the recesses of his cloak. He pulled out a slip of paper with complicated symbols etched on it, holding it between his index and middle finger tightly.

_A…a sutra?_ The Hokuto doll backed up warily, but his counterpart solidified her stance against them. Following her lead, they rushed the two at once. Shadow's sutra flashed blue and turned into a long whip-like weapon. He hit Hokuto square in the chest, but the doll only slid back with a smoking wound. Neina's doll tried to pierce her throat with her nails, but the real one caught her by the wrist and tossed her. The crowd dove for cover as it flew across the room, only to land in a crouch and rush her again.

"Do you think they need any help?" Tsuzuki asked worriedly.

"No. Don't you even dare." They all started to realize the empress was standing next to them now, regarding the fight stoically. "This is a fight between them. We shouldn't interfere."

"But…"

"No. If anyone can handle a fight like this, it's that woman." They all stared at her for a moment before turning back to the dance of blood and sweat on the ballroom floor. The doll forced Neina back with a well placed kick to her cross-block. She sent a jet a flame streaming across the room at the doll, who jumped up and away. Both their skirts were shortened tatters of what they had once been, making it easier to move and attack.

Shadow jumped up into the air and slashed down at the other doll, created deep streaks in the floor where his sutra whip hit. They all broke apart, Neina and Shadow at opposite sides and the doll-pelgangers together at another.

The doll-pelgangers suddenly adopted identical fighting stances. It was Neina's Mantis Kung Fu stance.

"No way! They know how to fight like she does?!" Watari cried in anxiety.

"No. They know how to fight like Neina and Hokuto did," the empress said bitterly. "They were a team after all. One of their better known strengths was how to fight as one."

Hisoka stared at the doubles in wonder. "To fight…as one?" He tensed when Neina actually moved back with a worried look to her eyes. As if a starting pistol had gone off they rushed her at once. She blocked a blow from her right, but was punched in the head from the left and sent careening. She didn't go down and kicked back, her kick actually on fire. They dodged with a series of flips, each perfectly in sync. When they landed, they scooped up shards of the glass she had broken and sent them flying at her.

Neina raised her hands, ready to throw up a shield, only to have her view blocked by  
Shadow. Another sutra between his fingers, a barrier wall appeared between them and the glass. The shards fizzled for a moment before rocketing back a hundreds times faster to the dolls. They were hit perfectly and growled at him in frustration, feeling no actual pain.

Neina stood, staring at her protector in confusion. _Why…is this so familiar?_ She jumped when he took up a fighting stance she recognized. She gaped, closing her mouth with a click when he jerked his head in the dolls' direction. Nodding, she took up the same stance with her back to his.

"What are they doing? And who is that?" Tsuzuki asked. "I'm so freakin' confused right now!" He shut up when both parties converged in a flurry of kicks and punches, flips and tosses. Neina and Shadow fought as if they were on the same frequency, never missing a beat and perfectly synchronized.

Hisoka watched, transfixed by the battle. It was like they were fighting mirror images. No one landed a damaging blow because the other saw it coming and countered or blocked. It would have lasted forever, if not for the fact that one side didn't play by fair rules.

The Dollmaster was suddenly next to Shadow, who was too busy matching his strength against the Hokuto doll. He had no defense when he bashed him in the head with a cane one of the other attendees left behind in their escape.

"Shadow!" Neina took her eyes off her opponent for a split second as she was about to cast a blasting spell. It was all the time the doll needed to bend her arm back and up so that the blast hit the ceiling instead. The doll managed to escape, but Neina and Shadow were buried beneath falling rubble and debris.

"NEINA!!" the shinigami all cried, about to run forward to her tomb of wreckage. Before they got even half-way, the dolls were suddenly among them. They sent all of them flying before taking Hisoka hostage by pinning his arms behind his back.

"Ah, what a lovely family portrait," Dollmaster chuckled, twirling the cane like a baton.

"You bastard! Let me go!"

He smiled coldly, pointing to Tsuzuki with the cane. "Only if he returns the knife to me. I need it, you see, to carry out my plan. It's the only one that will take her power for me," he gestured at the empress, who glared coldly back. "Return it to me. Otherwise…well, I wonder if even a shinigami can survive being beheaded." The dolls morphed their forearms into blades and positioned them around Hisoka's throat like a pair of scissors.

Tsuzuki looked at the knife and tightened his grip around it. "You…swear not to hurt him?"

"Tsuzuki, no!"

"I swear," he smiled, extending his hand.

"No, don't do it, you idiot!" The dolls pressed their blades closer to his flesh, silencing his protests.

Tsuzuki groaned, torn between Hisoka and the possible fate of them all. Watari and Tatsumi looked equally frustrated. He knew they were both scanning for any opening, but the moment they struck Hisoka would be a head shorter than usual. And he would have to drop the knife to summon any of his shiki.

"Give it to him, Mr. Tsuzuki," the empress said. Everyone turned to her, even the Dollmaster, shocked. "Release the boy, he has no part in this any longer. He is only even here per my request."

Dollmaster laughed, taking off his mask and tossing it to the ground. "My my, I didn't expect this. Oh so noble suddenly, highness?"

"Not really. I'm just buying that incompetent woman some time. I'm not suicidal, young man."

"Huh?"

They all froze as a wave of power hit them. The rubble that had buried their friend and ally suddenly lifted into the air as if being pulled away. Neina stood amidst all of it, her hair white and her eyes a fierce gold. Her swords were now summoned and resting in her hands at her sides. Shadow pushed himself up to stand by her side, but made no move to aid her. With a sound like the world exhaling a breath, her power seemed to flare around her into the shape of two huge wings.

In a flash she was in front of Hisoka, her swords piercing both dolls at once. They slumped and she flung them away as they turned back to wooden figures. She turned to Hisoka, who shivered at the look in her eyes.

Turning, the Dollmaster backed up a step. "Like father, like son," Neina growled. "To full of yourself to see the many mistakes you made. And all for power," she spat. She ran forward with her blades cast back. Several of the dolls she already broke tried to stop her, but they were cut down with one swing. She was about to pierce the puppeteer of this whole mess when Hokuto stepped between them.

"Neina, don't!" She gasped and stopped just short of hitting the doll. "Please Neina, be a good girl, and just let us finish this. You hate the empress too, don't you? With her out of the way we don't have to worry anymore."

"Hokuto…" she trembled, her aural wings suddenly vanishing. _I can't! I can't hurt him when he looks like Hokuto!_

Dollmaster smirked and shuffled into his coat to pull out a handgun. Aiming at her, he screamed as something pierced him and the doll in one blow. Neina watched as the spitting image her love's eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground, once again a lifeless wooden doll. Shadow retracted his sutra whip, walking over to place a hand on her shoulder.

"…thank you." She walked away back to her friends. Looking up, she did her best to smile at them. "Hey. Is everyone alright? What did I miss?"

Tsuzuki was suddenly two inches from her face, looking at her intently. Without warning he reached out and pinched her cheeks, pulling them as far as they could go. Everyone blinked or sweatdropped, including Shadow, as Neina brought her elbow down on his head. Hard.

"Just what do you think you're doing, Baka ne?" she growled.

Straightening, he smiled and rubbed his head good naturedly. "It's her!"

"But who's this?" Hisoka asked, gesturing to Shadow.

Neina turned to him and smiled reassuringly. "A friend. I call him Shadow, since he won't even say two words to tell me his name."

Tsuzuki smiled and extended his hand. "Nice to meet you! And impressive job with the fuda. How'd you do that thing with the whip?"

Shadow regarded the man for almost a full minute before turning away. Tsuzuki frowned, but Hisoka managed to keep him quiet and restrained as the cloaked figure turned his attention to his mother.

"Thanks again. You keep saving me, it's got to be annoying," she laughed. Shadow shook his head and took her hand in his. Lifting it up, he pulled his hood back enough that he could lightly press his lips to the back of her hand. Everyone ogled this, especially Hisoka, and Neina actually blushed at the gesture. Pulling his hood back into place, he suddenly turned and dashed out the open veranda doors before anyone could stop him.

"What was that all about?" Hisoka yelled. Neina smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

"I…don't really know."

"Courneneina?" She jumped and turned to face the empress. The older woman sighed and bowed her head slightly. "Thank you for saving me from that man. I was caught unprepeared for an attack, and you are the one who prevented both my death and the siege of my thrown."

Neina frowned and arched her eyebrows. "Knock it off. Gratitude doesn't suit you. Besides, I did it basically for everyone else but you."

The men all watched warily for what would happen next. They were surprised when the empress merely smiled. "I figured as much." Turning, she snapped her fingers and several dozen royal guards appeared and began to pick up the bodies and dolls now broken and shattered across the floor.

"Damn you, Verdette! You could have done that all along, couldn't you?" The empress merely smiled and waved them good bye as she retreated out into the main halls of her palace.

----------------------------------------------

Shadow sighed as he watched the five investigators leave. Now that it was all over, they would be returning back to Meifu and Tokyo. Not that he minded, that actually made his nightly deliveries easier.

"Ah, I thought it was you I sensed." Shadow jumped and whirled. Empress Verdette smiled knowingly and sauntered across the roof still clad in her masquerade gown. "Why don't you join them? After all, you belong with them."

Shadow chuckled low in his throat. "I can't fool you, can I?"

"I don't know how you've fooled my descendant for so long. You must be exhausted, putting all that effort into masking yourself. Which brings me back to my question, why?"

"You know why," he grumbled. "I can't go to her as I am now. She wouldn't…"

"Wouldn't what? Understand? Bah! That's the most infuriating thing about her. She understands almost everything. Or maybe your afraid of what she'll say when she sees you in the light, Mr. Shadow?" she said mockingly.

"Why is this any of your concern? You don't usually meddle in her affairs this much."

"As much as I loathe to admit it, I owe her my life. Her and her son."

"Her…son?!"

"What, you couldn't see the resemblance?" Shadow was quiet for a long time before turning and looking out over the forest.

"I still can't let her see me. It would be too much. It's better this way."

Verdette grunted and whirled around. "Suit yourself!" _We'll just have to see about that._

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O my gods, it's finally done! Ugh! Sorry this took so long, but getting sick always gives me writer's block. Again, tell me if anything doesn't make sense.

**R&R! Please review and tell me if this arch was any good. Or if it sucked, because I do like constructive criticism. Suggestions are still welcome too!**

Next time: Christmas!!


	20. Santa Secrets

Woot! Just in time for Christmas, go me!

Oh, I'm over my cold now too! Usually I'm pretty resilient and have an impenetrable immune system, but this thing just took me out like one of the ANBU Ops! (wow, I am a geek…and proud of it!)

Thanks, **laustic**!! Your reviews make me feel so accomplished! I'm glad you're not confused anymore, **Hiyami**!! And thank you for the PM, it gave me a nice glowing feeling. I'm glad you both liked the costumes, I put a lot of thought into them. And yes, Watari does have bad timing, huh? Sorry 'bout that, **Aerith21**. But I made up for it, you'll see. It ain't much, but it's a start.

TsuSoka fans, rejoice! You'll see why later.

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It was a sea of coats, hats, hoods, scarves, gloves, and various other thick, warming clothing for armor against the biting wind outside the shopping center. Hisoka held his selected gift against his chest protectively. He cast his gaze left and right in search of something he had already lost.

"Tsuzuki!!" he called, hoping he could be heard above the din of the crowd. The older man had convinced him to come with him shopping on the Saturday before Christmas, having waited till then to actually go and get a gift. Of course, Hisoka had ordered his earlier, but it hadn't been ready till now because of the rush.

(_Begin flashback_)

"You okay, Neina?" he asked. He was used to his mother smiling and waving him hello, sometimes sneaking up behind him and trapping him in a hug. But today she just sat at the table, stirring her cup of tea slowly as if hypnotizing herself with the swirling liquid. Her cheek was resting against the palm of her hand and her eyes were hooded, a frown playing at her lips. Every now and then she sighed and took a sip then continued stirring.

Neina started, for once not having noticed his arrival. She smiled, but her eyes still looked distant and slightly vexed. "No, no. I'm fine. Just…admiring the décor. Did they put these up all in one night?"

"Yep. Christmas is taken pretty serous by some of the people around here."

As if on cue, Tsuzuki burst through the doors with a huge grin on his face. "Only a week till Christmas!!" he nearly sang and skipped over to them.

"Example A," Hisoka sighed.

"Good morning, Tsuzuki. Got your shopping done yet?"

"Nope! I don't know who I'm shopping for yet."

"Huh?" Neina tilted her head, a confused frown now on her face.

Hisoka sat down across from her after pouring himself a cup of tea. "We decided to try a Secret Santa exchange this year, after some budget cuts were made in the summer. We're actually picking them today."

"Secret…Santa?"

"Yeah! We draw names out of a hat, and we buy a present for that person. But nobody knows who they'll draw before hand or who will draw them. It's fun!"

"Okay…I think I get it."

"Good, cause it's time to draw!" Watari laughed loudly as he skipped into the breakroom, 003 fluttering behind and Tatsumi coming walking in a more dignified fashion with a hat in his hands. "I went ahead added your name too, Neina-chan!"

Neina straightened, genuinely surprised. "But I don't actually work here."

"What are you talking about?" Tsuzuki clapped her on the shoulder and grinned in her face, causing her to sweat a little. "You help us on missions, you help us, okay maybe just me, with paperwork, and you're here pretty much everyday even before some of us get here. I think that definitely qualifies you to participate and be a Secret Santa."

"The baka's actually right for once," Hisoka laughed haughtily. Tsuzuki pouted, puppy ears drooping in a hurt fashion.

"Mau, Hisoka you don't have to say it like it's so rare."

"We see the Loch ness monster in Tokyo bay more often, grandpa!" Terazuma griped, his cigarette bobbing up and down as he talked. He and Wakaba had just walked in, ready to draw for their recipients.

A vein mark appeared above the purpled orbed man's head, throbbing in beat with his growl of annoyance. "Well we've seen you without a cig in your mouth less often than that. Got yourself an oral fixation, tiger?" It wasn't so much the words as the way he said them that got the ex-detective riled up.

They stood tow to tow now, lightening flashing between their eyes in the stereotypical alpha-male face down. This abruptly ended when Neina shoved her hands in both their faces and pushed them apart. "I'll draw already, just knock it off!"

"Gaaaaaaaah!!" Terazuma suddenly dashed out the open window (they're on the first floor, it's a short drop and he's dead anyway…). Neina blinked and then her eyes expanded as he transformed into a large black lion with wings.

"Whoa…there's something you don't see everyday."

"It is if you work here…" Tatsumi sighed, motioning for Wakaba to go collect her partner. "We'll just start with out them. I'll choose last, everyone start."

…….

Hisoka sighed as he looked at his slip of paper for the umpteenth time since the day he pulled it. _Neina…it just had to be Neina._ He quickly shoved the slip back into his jacket pocket as said woman walked in, another frown on her face. She didn't even notice him again and sat down at the other end of the table. She pulled out the battered photo she had rescued from her old home in Avalon.

"Morning," he said uncertainly.

"Mm-hmm," she muttered, flipping the page. Now that wasn't right. She's supposed to smile sweetly and say something like 'Good Morning, Hisoka honey!'

"You okay?" He switched over to her side, sitting next to her.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just looking through some old photos…" He glanced in and nearly fell over to see a giant wolf wearing reindeer antlers and a red nose.

"Is that…Dr. Mafferie?"

Neina finally grinned. "Yep! This was our Christmas get together…around when I was fifteen, I think. They dragged me to it and then spent the rest of the night trying to make me a fan of Christmas. And it actually wasn't as torturous as I expected," she laughed.

"You didn't like Christmas?"

"Not really. I did when I was younger, but after my parents died and then Sagara-sensei, it just didn't feel right anymore."

"Oh…"

"Try telling that to them, though," she laughed. "Gods, they just wouldn't take no for an answer. They force fed me fudge and cider till I thought I was going to be sick, then gave me several armfuls of presents. Even though I never got them a thing…" her smile turned sad as she turned the page. "We took a lot of pictures though. I have a whole section dedicated to Christmases. You want to look? I have some of your first in here."

Hisoka took the album and began to slowly flip through. He didn't recognize many of the people in the photos from the Dark Guard. Really just his parents and Runa and Kelton (from his described bright red hair and the fact there was a giant canine in many pictures). Then came pictures of Hokuto and Neina alone, one of them both sharing the same blanket curled up next to a fire. Then…

Neina laughed at the wide-eyed look in his eyes as he looked at several pictures of his parents and a small toe-headed child with large green eyes. "Is it really that surprising?"

"I've never seen what I look like as a baby…" he muttered. Neina's smile faltered and she leaned over to ruffle his hair. He groaned and batted her hand away, half-heartedly smoothing out his hair.

"Oh, I wanted to ask you for some advice. You see, yesterday I drew—"

"Oh my gosh, is that Hisoka as a baby?!" came a shrill cry came from behind them. Both empaths did a double take, wondering how they had gotten that close without being noticed, and grimaced as Saya and Yuma stood with hearts and stars in their eyes, grabbing for the photo album. "He's so cute!!!"

Hisoka grabbed the other woman by the wrist and ran from the room. "Best to escape while their distracted!"

"But my pictures!"

"I'll have Tsuzuki get them later. He can actually stand those two!" _But thanks for giving me an idea…_

(_End flashback_)

Hisoka groaned, his vision beginning to swim. Everyone's good cheer and desperation was causing a conundrum in his mind. "Tsuzuki, where are you?!" He stumbled as someone roughly brushed past him, his empathy suddenly going into overdrive and pounding through his brain.

Before he fell forward completely, Tsuzuki finally made it through the crowd he had been pushing himself through to get to his partner and dove to catch him.

"Hisoka! Are you okay?"

The younger male gripped his friend's upper arms and pulled himself up, but didn't let go. "Too…many people," he groaned. Tsuzuki nodded, putting the boy's wrapped parcel in with whatever it was he had bought and hoisted him up a little higher.

"Gain way! Man with the flu, coming through!!" Everyone immediately parted, some making signs as if he were carrying a vampire or tightening their scarves around their faces. Vaguely Hisoka had to admit Tsuzuki had his odd moments of brilliance.

Outside, when they were a safe distance away, Tsuzuki teleported them to the sanctity of his partner's apartment. He set the boy down carefully on the couch and couldn't help but smile as he sighed and slumped against the cushions.

"Still pretty bad with big crowds, huh?"

The boy groaned again. "Yeah. And the weather isn't helping. My hands are freezing still!" He brought them up and breathed on them, finding minimal comfort in the action and pouting slightly.

"Here," the larger man chuckled, "Let me." He enclosed his friend's hands in his own, rubbing over the back with his thumb. Then as a final measure he placed them over his cheeks and grinned at the boys blush. "I'm nice and warm, aren't I?"

"Y-yeah…" Tsuzuki blinked, surprised. He had expected to be walloped on the head and thrown out into the collecting snow for that what he was doing. But Hisoka was just staring down at his lap, his face still tinged with pink. Not that he really minded. It gave him a chance to revel in the soft feeling of the others skin on his, and the close proximity he was to the other. But still, he knew this was strange.

"You sure you're okay, Soka?"

The boy nodded, but wouldn't look up at him. He seemed to let loose a held breath when Tsuzuki let go of his hands, only to re-inhale with a small squeak when violet eyes were suddenly in his line of vision.

"You sure? You face is awfully flushed."

_That's because you won't stop staring, baka!_ "I-I'm fine, really. You sound like a broken record." The man pursed his lips and straightened, allowing his younger counterpart to do the same. "Uh, what did you get, anyway? Your for your Secret Santa gift?"

Tsuzuki grinned and wagged a finger in front of his face, as if reprimanding him. "I can't tell! I want it to be a surprise for everyone! What about you?"

"Not telling." The older man pouted, but then noticed the time.

"Shoot! I gotta go, I still have to wrap it. Here," he picked the already wrapped package from his bag and handed it to him. "See you tomorrow at the party!"

"Yeah…see ya." Tsuzuki left through the door this time._ Weird… A minute ago I was suffocating because there were so many people around I couldn't even feel whatever it is that makes up me. But now…why do I feel so alone?_ He placed a hand over his heart and remembered how Tsuzuki's eyes had looked that night they danced together. The beat spiked rapidly, flooding him with warmth. _Tsuzuki…what have you done to me?_

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"MERRY CHRISTMAS**!!"** they all yelled, letting off holiday poppers so the streams of colored paper flew across the room. Konohe was already trying to get enough takers to start a conga line, having hit the eggnog early. Tatsumi sighed, asking whose idea it was to serve it alcoholic, and Watari and Tsuzuki just did their best to smile innocently.

"Time for presents!" the scientist yelled, trying to distract the secretary's death glare. He made a B-line for the tree, an elf hat slung across his mop of auburn waves. "Right, we've got one for Tsuzuki, one for Tatsumi, one for me, one for Hisoka…another for Tatsumi?" he said in confusion.

"Ah, I guess I forgot to explain," Neina smiled and presented the gift to Tatsumi. "This is my first Christmas with all of you, so I decided I'd get you all a little something. I felt a little strange otherwise. So," she gathered up them all and began doling them out. "Merry Christmas, everyone!"

The all stared at their gifts in surprise, then smiled. "Thank you, Neina!" Neina squawked as she was pulled into a tight group hug between the girls and Tsuzuki and Watari. Tatsumi smiled and patted her head, which is as much as she expected considering she wasn't Tsuzuki. Konohe hooked her around the neck and tried to lead her into a dance, which she graciously excused herself from.

Suddenly she tensed and cursed. "Dangit! Yours is still in my coat, Hisoka. I'll be right back." She jogged quickly from the break room, heading for the coat closet down the next hall.

"Your mother is so nice, Hisoka!" Wakaba said. She was clutching a rose colored apron with strawberries all over happily.

Hisoka smiled a little, then frowned when he felt something fall on his head. Reaching up, he stared perplexedly at a little sprig with champagne colored berries.

"What's that?" Tsuzuki asked, holding it up to the light above them.

"Ohhhhh! Hisoka and Tsuzuki are under the mistletoe!"

"What?!" Both of them stared at the little offending sprig, Tsuzuki dropping it to the floor. He looked up and saw Watari shrugging in apology, evidently having lost his hold on it somehow.

"Now you have to kiss!" Yuma squealed.

"Um, well, th-that's not, I mean I'd like to…no! Uh…" Tsuzuki floundered, waving his arms around as if to dispel the sudden interest everyone had in them.

Hisoka, blushing madly, didn't look at anyone. _Kiss…Tsuzuki?_

"Come on, it's tradition!" Yuma yelled. Even Watari was nodding and grinning. Tatsumi's glasses slipped askew to the side, the only evidence that he was even slightly affected by this turn of events.

"B-but I can't!" Hisoka looked up then, staring at Tsuzuki with a mildly stunned expression. "I mean, not I if Hisoka doesn't want to…"

"But it's tradition!" the girls whined, Watari backing them up openly now. A chant of "Kiss" and "Tradition" was started up among them and Tatsumi decided no alcohol was to be served next year.

The brunette was about to argue further when he had a strange feeling within his mind. _It won't count. _He jumped and looked around wildly, stopping when a hand rested on his shoulder and green eyes looked into his. _It will just be a quick kiss, between friends, so that they'll shut up. Okay?_

Tsuzuki stared at him in bewilderment, not only for the fact he was speaking telepathically but also because of the message. _Are…are you sure_?

The blond nodded and Tsuzuki gulped. Taking a deep breath, Tsuzuki made sure to keep his hands at his sides as he leaned down and Hisoka leaned up. There was a chorus of gasps (they didn't actually think they'd do it) as their lips met.

Tsuzuki had a sudden lightheaded sensation. It felt all the worry he had felt was suddenly gone, swept away by that simple contact of skin to skin. His hands itched to grab the boy and deepen the contact, but he managed to keep it in check.

Hisoka wouldn't have minded. He was dealing with similar feelings of feeling both airy and warm at the same time and wanting to snake his arms around his partner's neck. A sudden craving to know if he tasted as sweet as his eating habits was driving him to the brink.

Someone clearing their throat loudly intruded upon them and they reluctantly broke apart. They stared at Watari, who was make a gesture a across his throat to cut it out, and Tatsumi, who was pointing behind them. Turning their head, they both irked when they saw Neina at the door. Her eyebrows were arched and her eyes were wide in surprise and her mouth was slightly agape.

Before anyone could say a word she dashed out again. Hisoka followed, calling after her. "Neina!! Neina, wait, it just a big mistake!" He caught up to her out side where he found her leaning against a sakura tree with a hand pressed over her mouth. "Neina, it's just a big misunderstanding! There was this mistletoe and…"

He finally took a good look at her, the way her shoulders were shaking and the way she double over. And above the still of the night he heard her.

"M-mistletoe…heehee…you and Tsuzuki…snort…!" she suddenly threw her head back and laughed pressing her hand to her stomach. When her giggles finally began to subside she looked up at him. Immediately her face sudden ballooned and she burst into guffaws. "Oh my god, both of your faces! When I walked in…oh my gods!!"

Hisoka watched her, confused. "You…you aren't angry?"

"About what?" she asked, wiping at her eyes. "Oh, that you were kissing a guy?" She shrugged, still smiling. "Meh. Maybe if things had been different I would've been, the whole 'what about grandchildren?!' thing, but ultimately who you love is up to you. But did it have to be the baka?"

"I don't love him!" he squeaked, pinking up.

"Oh? The lip lock speaks differently," she grinned.

"I-I told you, it was the mistletoe!"

"Fine, fine," she laughed, holding her hands up in surrender. "Here," she dove her hand into her pocket, pulling out a small box. "Merry Christmas!"

He took the box, rather baffled that she brushed off seeing her son kiss another man so easily. Opening the box, he was surprised…or rather intrigued to find a small turquoise glass bobble on the end of a red braided silk string.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's an empathy dampener. Tsuzuki told me what happened earlier in the week, so I thought you could use this." Hisoka inwardly growled at his friend's big mouth. Then he blushed, remembering the feeling of said big mouth on his. "It has multiple settings. At the highest, only ten percent of other people's emotions will leak through to you. At the lowest, eighty-five percent. I figured you could use it until you can better control it."

He stared at the little bobble in new appreciation. "Wow…"

"Yeah. It's the same one Master Sagara gave me when I first went under his teachings."

Hisoka's head whipped up. "Then I can't take it! I mean, doesn't have sentimental value?"

"Of course. But it was just gathering dust back home in the vault, so I thought you could put it to use. Plus I prefer to think it's relieving you of some of the stress you must feel in crowds. I remember it well…" she sighed, getting a headache just from thinking about it. "Just set with the dial at the top and put it in your pocket or somewhere on your person." He nodded and placed it carefully into his jacket pocket.

"H-here…uh, I'm your Secret Santa."

Neina took the package in silence. Holding it, she couldn't help but smile tenderly. "I don't think you're supposed to tell me. Then it's not a secret." He blushed and pursed his lips, about to snap that if she didn't want it she just had to say so. She laughed and opened it carefully, pulling the paper aside. She did a fairly entertaining imitation of a goldfish at what she saw.

"You said once that it was your favorite. I stole it out of the album before I gave it back." Neina nodded, running her hand over the silver picture frame engraved with ivy. Inside was a picture of her and Hokuto, with a baby Hisoka held between them. They were both smiling with their cheeks against him while he stared doe-eyed into the camera.

She smiled and pressed the picture to her chest. "Thank you Hisoka. I love it." He blushed but managed a small smile in return.

Neina suddenly looked up and back the way they came. "Someone's looking for you," she smiled. He turned to see Tsuzuki on the steps of the building, shifting from foot to foot in hesitation. "Go on, I'm heading home anyway. Before the chief starts Christmas Karaoke."

He nodded, but paused as he turned. "Um, Neina?" She smiled and tilted her head in question. "M…maybe we could spend tomorrow together…since its Christmas Day and everything," he finished quietly. Neina blinked twice in surprise but smiled brightly.

"That would mean a lot to me, Hisoka. Thank you." He nodded and jogged over to Tsuzuki.

"Is she angry?" he asked timidly.

"No, she actually just kind of laughed it off. What's up?"

"Oh, well…here," he pushed a wrapped gift at him. "Uh, Merry Christmas, I'm your secret santa!"

Hisoka stared at the package and then back at his friend. "I don't think you were supposed to tell me, Tsuzuki. That's why it's a secret."

"What?! Oh, uh, well…"

"But thank you." He opened the bag and pulled out a green scarf with a matching pair of gloves and a knit hat.

"S-so you won't feel cold this winter." _They match your eyes_, he added silently.

"Thank you Tsuzuki! This is really great."

"Really?"

The boy nodded and wound the scarf around his neck. "I feel bad though. I don't have anything for you."

Tsuzuki blushed at the way he admired his gift and ran hand up the back of his hair. "Well…if you're not busy, maybe…we could hang out tomorrow?"

Hisoka opened his mouth, ready to accept, then paused. _Tomorrow? _"I'm sorry, Tsuzuki. I just agreed to spend the day with Neina." _I really am sorry._

"Oh, that's fine," the older man piped. He tried not to let any of his disappointment show and smiled. "I totally understand. Uh, we'd better go back in. Somebody has to drag the chief away from the mike eventually." Hisoka nodded, still a little regretful that he had to disappoint the man. From the shadows of the column, Neina pushed off and headed home.

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Neina was still lost in thought when she walked up the steps to her apartment. So lost that she almost had a heart attack when someone slipped from the darkness noiselessly as she put her key in the door.

"Shadow! You trying to give me a heart attack?"

The cloaked man bowed in apology and presented her with a box, a white lily tied to the lid. _Oh. I guess even shadows celebrate Christmas._ Accepting the gift with a smile, she pulled the lily from the lid and reached out to it.

_Merry Christmas, Neina-chan. Try and smile, okay? I hope you like it. _She blushed at the loving tone of the message, trying to swallow her sudden embarrassment. She looked up and he motioned for her to go on. Opening the box, it returned full force with a stunned intake of breath.

A light grey stone heart on the end of a dark chain hung before her. The heart itself was gutted, revealing a sloped red crystal. She brought it up from the box and watched it dance in the light of the moon. "It's beautiful…thank you," she breathed. She started when he stepped forward and took it from her grasp. Reaching around her, he fastened it around her neck. He didn't retreat afterwards though. Instead, he slowly wrapped his arms around her and held her close.

Neina almost had that heart attack. Not only was a strange hooded man hugging her…but she like it. Collecting her wits, she gently pushed him away. "Y-you shouldn't do that. I'm married."

He tilted his head, glancing at the picture still in her hands. He tapped the glass above Hokuto's face.

"Yes, that's my husband, Hokuto." His finger moved and tapped over the baby face of her son. "And that's our son, Hisoka. He's all grown up now, though. And I missed it…" she sighed. She gasped when his hand caressed the side of her face. It was such a tender touch, so gentle. She shook her head and backed up.

"I said stop! Please…" she finished pathetically. Shadow still reached for her but did halt. Bowing once more, he disappeared over the side of the railing and into the fresh powdered snow. Neina looked after him for a long time before opening the door and going inside.

Walking into the bedroom, she placed her newly framed photo on her bedside table. Fingering the pendant, she looked into the photo of Hokuto's eyes and felt a pane of guilt. Pushing the photo down, she sighed and pulled the pendant off. _Hokuto…I love you. Please forgive me._

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Tsuzuki woke the next morning to a knocking at his door. Groaning, he tried to ignore it for the first few minutes.

"Tsuzuki, you baka, open the damn door!!" That he couldn't ignore, especially since he knew that voice. Throwing the door open, he gaped when he realized that yes, Hisoka was indeed on his doorstep.

"Hisoka?! What're you doing here?!"

"Neina cancelled. Evidently she got sick last night. I went to go see her and she had dark circles under her eyes and was really pale. She said I should go spend the day with friends instead of being cooped up with a sick person all day."

Tsuzuki grinned and stepped aside. "Come on in then! You're always welcome here."

Hisoka paused, putting a hand over his eyes in embarrassment. "Do you think you could put on a robe or something first?!"

The older man looked down to realize he was dressed only in his boxers (they have little cupcakes on him ). Laughing a little strained, he left the door open and rushed off to put on his pants. He felt bad that Neina was sick, but at the same time he wanted to dance for joy that he got to spend the day with his best friend. Hisoka went in and closed the door behind him.

He never noticed Neina down the street, smiling, having washed off her so called illness with a good make-up remover. Turning, she started away back home.

"Oh, she wanted me to give you this," Hisoka said, handing Tsuzuki a note in exchange for his cup of hot-chocolate.

Tsuzuki flipped the not open and read through it.

'Dear Tsuzuki,

Merry Christmas!! Have fun and show him a good time, kay?

Sincerely, your Secret Santa (I realize it's not a secret anymore, but whatever)

P.S. Don't try anything I wouldn't, or we'll just have to see what a shinigami can and cannot survive. You get me, baka?'

Tsuzuki irked at the last line, but smiled none the less. _Thank you, Neina. This means a lot to me._ He stole a glance at Hisoka, who was sipping at his cocoa. _You'll never know how much this means to me._

----------------------------------------------------

Phew!! Long for a vignette, I know, but I think it still counts cause it ain't continuing from here…not really.

Anyway, **REVIEW!!! **Feed the beast! That would be moi, thank you. **Suggestions**are good too. Ta for now!


	21. Important Message from the Author

VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Okay, since this things getting real big, I've decided to make a book two or a part two or whatever you want to call it. Mainly because I'm about to go over 100,000 words and really can't think of stopping it anytime soon. Go on to the book two if:

A) you want to know who Shadow is

B) you want to see how much Neina can make Hisoka's life complicated

C) (most importantly) you want to see Hisoka and Tsuzuki's budding relationship. It will happen, people, I'm finally on that track!

That being said, I do need some input on something. Depending on the feed back I get I'll be able to figure out what to do next, because right now I'm stuck between a couple of options. The question will not make sense now, but it will later, so here it is:

Which would be worst to be stuck as, a cat or a plushie?

Vote please. And anyother suggestions are more than welcome. Also, Suggestions for a title to book two would be much apprecitated. If you don't want others to read suggestions for anything, title or chapter or whatever, just send me a private message.

Love you all and Happy Holidays!


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